


An alliance of blood and death

by UnumChuchi



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Found Family, Hunter Lexa, I'd probably add more tags, Lexa needs a hug, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Slow Burn, Vampire Clarke Griffin, Vampire Hunters, Vampires, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26476852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnumChuchi/pseuds/UnumChuchi
Summary: For a moment, Lexa considered making a little cut in her finger. Just a few drops of blood would attract the vampire she was waiting for the last hour, and maybe with that little incentive Clarke would come. She decided against the idea after some hesitation. Clarke wasn’t the only vampire in that zone. Besides, Lexa had already gave her a big incentive. An incentive that could end Lexa’s life. She was making enemies in her allies while seeking an alliance within her enemies. Yeah, that could easily cost her head, but nowadays, it was hard to find something that wasn’t a danger to her.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Comments: 103
Kudos: 261





	1. In the dark

**Author's Note:**

> just wanna say that English isn’t my first language. Sorry for my bad grammar and misspellings!  
> I've already wrote the first chapters, so I'll be updating twice a week :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!!

Waiting in the corner of the alley, Lexa wondered if she would survive another year. Although she was twenty-one, she had almost died more times than she remembered. That was normal, vampire hunters never had long lives. No matter how tired she was of fighting, she needed to remember that fact. It was too late for her mother. It was probably too late for her too. But not for the kids of the next generation like Aden. 

_Let’s hope this is the last war_ , she thought, playing with a knife. For a moment, Lexa considered making a little cut in her finger. Just a few drops of blood would attract the vampire she was waiting for the last hour, and maybe with that little incentive Clarke would come. She decided against the idea after some hesitation. Clarke wasn’t the only vampire in that zone.

She decided against the idea after some hesitation. Clarke wasn’t the only vampire in that zone. Besides, Lexa had already gave her a big incentive. An incentive that could end Lexa’s life. She was making enemies in her allies while seeking an alliance within her enemies. Yeah, that could easily cost her head, but nowadays, it was hard to find something that wasn’t a danger to her. The more power she had, the more vulnerable she became.

Lexa stopped those thoughts when she heard some quiet footsteps. A vampire was coming closer. Another person wouldn’t have heard it, but Lexa had learnt to enhance her instincts. After years of practice and experimentation, she could sense at some level the presence of the vampires.

“Good night, Clarke,” she said to the empty alley while she introduced the knife into her pocket. She needed to show that she wasn’t looking for a fight.

Finally, Clarke showed herself. She walked slowly toward Lexa, only stopping when her face was some inches from the hunter. Lexa tried to remain calm although she was uncomfortable. Clarke had the bad costume of moving into Lexa’s personal space knowing how much she hated it. Obviously, tonight wasn’t an exception.

“Night, Lexa.”

Clarke was smiling, but her smile didn’t reach her blue eyes. In the night, they seemed darker than they were, almost two black pools. For once, they were unreadable.

Lexa crossed her arms trying to put some distance between them. “Thanks for coming. I guess you received my message.”

“Your message?” Clarke raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking about Bellamy. Because he is the only reason why I’m not attacking you. Yet,” she added showing her white and very sharp tooth.

Ignoring the thread, Lexa crossed her arms tighter. The last time Clarke had seriously threated was three years ago, since then, the vampire was playful, unlike Lexa. Now she didn’t know the best way to continue that conversation. She had been reckless coming alone and Clarke probably knew it, so at least Lexa needed to seem less desperate than she was.

“Three years ago, I told you I wanted to have a truce and I maintained an alliance for the last two years. And even if now it’s seems that I broke my word, it isn’t the case. That’s why I let free Bellamy instead of killing him.”

The vampire’s eyes shined with fury, finally showing some emotion. Lexa fought against her instincts and didn’t react when Clarke grabbed her neck and pulled her against the wall.

“You know, killing Atom doesn’t seem to be a good way to keep our alliance.” Although her voice was barely a whisper, it was full of anger.

“We didn’t kill him,” Lexa explained, remained as calm as before. “Someone made it seems to be our fault, but we didn’t.”

“How can you be so sure? It wouldn’t be the first time someone you trust attack us.”

That was a low blow and Lexa gritted her teeth with the memory. After decades of war, Lexa decided to stop it ignoring all the arguments of her advisors. And it was difficult to forget Gustus’ betrayal and his intent of ending the alliance before it started. It was impossible to forget that was Lexa who ended his life.

Lexa took a deep breath. Thinking of Gustus woke up not only the pain, but also the memories of everything she had sacrificed to obtain their alliance. She couldn’t lose it now.

“I’m sure that we didn’t. In the same way that I’m sure that none of you killed Costia.” Not even Lexa’s best effort was enough to pretend to be emotionless and her voice broke with the last words.

That was her first sign of vulnerability since she found her best friend’s corpse two days ago. Lexa hadn’t allowed herself to cry, she would mourn her later when the new threat disappeared. Until then, she needed to be Heda, the commander of the vampire hunters, not Lexa.

Although she didn’t want to sound so weak, her honesty affected Clarke more than her words. The vampire’s eyes widened and she relaxed her grip. “Costia? She’s death?”

Lexa nodded. She was sure. Every time she closed her eyes it came to her mind the image of Costia’s head laying in a pool of blood.

“Yes, she is.” This time, Lexa managed to sound less affected. “She was murdered by a vampire the same day a hunter killed Atom. Someone wants to end our alliance. And I’m afraid we’ll have to face a new enemy.”

“Wait, Lexa. Are you okay?”

The vampire moved her hand from Lexa’s neck to her cheek. She didn’t look mad anymore, instead, she was worried.

Lexa felt overwhelmed for that unexpected sign of affection, the first in days. Though a part of her wanted to lean down in the touch, she couldn’t allow it. Not there, not now. Probably never.

“I’ll be. Now, please, focus on what is really important. All of us are in danger.”

Clarke shook her head. “I’ll never understand your policy about feelings,” she muttered under her breath.

Suddenly, Clarke’s body tensed. Lexa knew the reason a second later when she heard the sound of footsteps coming toward them. Vampires, at least a dozen.

“Please, tell me they are your friends,” asked Lexa while she lowered her hand to her pocket and closed her fingers around the knife handle.

“I’m afraid not,” she replied without looking afraid at all. “Fighting them won’t make them believe you and if you are honest, I can’t let them kill or kidnap you. We need to go somewhere.”

“Don’t you dare,” Lexa threatened although she knew it was their best option.

As an answer, Clarke just smirked. With an elegant move, she cut the palm of her hand using a nail. Then, she placed again her bleeding hand on Lexa’s cheek making a little cut. The red blood of the vampire encountered the black of the vampire hunter.

They disappeared in the air some seconds before a dozen of vampires arrived at the alley.

✠ ✠

Of all the vampire’s abilities, turning smoke was the one Lexa hated the most. She could handle their speed, their longevity or their fast healing. However, that they could turn their bodies into smoke was the worst to deal with. Fortunately, not all vampires learned how to do it and they couldn’t use it always.

Another bad part of that ability was that it wasn’t meant for a human body. Some vampires could pull with themselves a human, but it wasn’t a nice experience.

After what Lexa felt as hours but cannot but couldn’t be more than a few minutes, they appeared inside a building. Although Lexa’s instincts pulled her to know more about her surroundings, she stood still. She felt dizzy, a bit nauseous, and the only thing that avoided her to fall to the ground were Clarke’s arms wrapped around her. It was pathetic and it wasn’t even the first time she was in that kind of situation.

Unable to do more, Lexa allowed that the vampire helped her to sit down on the floor, leaning her back on a couch. The hunter blinked several times trying to focus. They were in the inside of an old building, for the lack of windows, maybe a bunker. Whatever it was a bunker or a house, they were probably in the living room considering the couch, the big table and the different closets.

“Where are we?” Lexa groaned. She was becoming more conscious of her surroundings, but the headache wasn’t disappearing. In fact, it seemed to be worst. Traveling in form of smoke and lack of sleep wasn’t a good combination.

“In a safe place.”

Lexa didn’t believe something like that existed, however, she wasn’t going to argue about that. She turned her head to Clarke wishing to not look as disastrous as she felt. “Are we far from Polis?”

“I shouldn’t answer that, but no, we aren’t.”

Clarke leaned down and caressed Lexa’s cut on her cheek. The hunter felt the too familiar sensation of her injury healing. Soon, it only left some red marks of blood. The vampire licked her fingers, now stained with black blood.

“Everything would be easier if your blood wasn’t so tasty,” she muttered staring at Lexa’s eyes.

It wasn’t a statement that Lexa liked, but she couldn’t refute it. Although being a natblida had their advantages, it was also promise of a short life. Most of them died in the hands of a vampire or fighting during the conclave. There wasn’t any knowledge about a natblida who had lived more than forty years. Most of them didn’t even arrived at their twenties.

“Probably, but we are what we are. And right now, if my blood is tasty or not is the last of my concerns.”

“Right, our new enemy,” she muttered. “How are you so sure? I didn’t feel anything weird lately, you may be wrong and the enemy it’s an old and cold one.”

Oh, Lexa would love to be wrong. She had been dealing with her intern problems since the beginning and she could continue.

“Don’t get me wrong, the ice hunters want me death and they would use every chance they have. However, it was a vampire who killed Costia and she isn’t the only victim. During the last months we had some strange disappearances.”

“You had disappearances for months and you didn’t do anything?” Clarke Snaped in disbelieved before realizing. “Wait… You didn’t know it until now?”

“Jackpot,” she smiled without joy. “Our dearest Nia queen had covered it. She has probably made an alliance with the new group of vampires. I guess her plan is to arrange my death to take control of the hunters. And the Ark will carry the blame.”

It wasn’t necessary add that it was also the cause of Costia’s death. Nia wanted her without allies and she was doing a great job. With Costia gone, Lexa only had two people she could trust her life. One was Aden and the other Anya. A ten-years old kid and a hunter who was at the other side of the country in a secret mission. Yeah, Lexa was in a good position.

Beside her, Clarke furrowed her brow. Lexa considered herself impassive, or at least she tried to be. Clarke, in the other hand, didn’t share that trait with her. The vampire showed how she felt even if some people could have problems reading her. Lexa wasn’t one of them, after five years, she knew Clarke too well.

“So, let me get this straight,” Clarke began. For once, she didn’t joke about how neither of them was straight. “Nia wants to kill you as usually, but now she has the support of some vampires. The same vampires that arranged Atom murdered to start a war between us. If you know all of this… why did you capture Bellamy?” 

Lexa bit her lip, upset for what she was going to say. She would prefer lying, but if she wanted Clarke’s trust, first she’ll need to be honest. And that implied admitting how bad was her situation.

“I didn’t capture him; it was Roan who did it following her mother’s orders. They almost killed Bellamy, Clarke. Some of my people think we should destroy all vampires or die trying. Letting Bellamy free had let me in a difficult position.”

She didn’t explain she was losing support, that some viewed her as a weak leader and would love seeing a new commander. If Aden were older or there were another natblida ready to that position, she would allow it. But no, she couldn’t die now. Aden was far too young and none of the oldest natblidas were qualified. That could change if Anya was successful on her mission, though. 

“Then, why did you do it?” Clarke asked staring at her as closely as she could.

“I don’t want the conflict between us grow,” she replied, shortly. It wasn’t a lie, neither all the truth. She couldn’t admit she feared Clarke’s hate if she had allowed the murdered of her friend.

As if reading minds were another ability of vampires, Clarke raised an eyebrow and leaned down a little. “That’s all?”

“Everything I do, I’ll do it for my people. And, if I can, for your people too. And neither of us are ready to fight again.”

The blonde didn’t argue, she just kept staring at her. Probably she knew what Lexa was hiding. Maybe Lexa was good at reading Clarke’s emotions, but it was also in the other way around.

Suddenly too conscious of their closeness, the hunter pushed herself to stand. It was too abruptly and the room spun around her. Although Lexa wanted to put some distance between them, the vampire stood up and wrapped her arm around Lexa’s waist, steading her.

“Hey, easy,” she whispered near Lexa’s ear.

Shivering, Lexa put her hand on Clarke’s shoulder. Her intention was not needing to relay on her, but the vampire didn’t move her hand away from her waist, even if now wasn’t necessary.

“You know, it’s funny that an hour ago you wanted to kill me,” Lexa muttered, realizing too late that it wasn’t funny.

Clarke furrowed her brow, staring at her too intensive for Lexa’s comfort. “Killing you? Nah, I just wanted to beat you. If I kill you, who would be my partner in crime?”

“I wouldn’t define our relationship as ‘partners in crime’.”

“Why not? Both of us have done some crimes, sometimes together. I mean, we are even part of the ‘be gay, do crimes’.”

For the first time in days, a smile broke out on Lexa’s face, losing once again against Clarke’s logic. In front of her, Clarke’s smile widened. Feeling an affection she shouldn’t feel, Lexa pushed herself away. And this time, she was successful.

“That was lame,” she protested, weakly, before she could put back her mask of indiference. “Anyway, I should go. It’s getting late.

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t you like to spend the night here?”

Although Clarke had the bad costume of flirting with her, this time it sounded more worried than flirty.

“Sorry, I’ll have to decline your offer,” she said, fighting against another smile. “See you soon, Clarke.”

“See you soon, Lexa.”

Lexa turned around and walked toward the door ready to leave on her on feet and not as smoke. When she reached the doorknob, Clarke’s hand captured her wrist. Lexa didn’t turn, she waited, feeling Clarke’s presence almost touching her back.

“Before you go,” the vampire whispered. “I have a question. Why do you think that there’s a new group of vampires? Pyke and his people hate you enough to attempt to kill you.”

“It’s a possibility,” she admitted. “But it’s hard to believe that, considering how much they hate us, they could make an alliance with some hunters.”

It was a weak argument, but better than saying that she felt it. She was sure that Costia’s death wasn’t caused for the Ark clan for a reason she couldn’t define yet.

“Okay.”

Clarke’s hand released her and Lexa opened the door. She left the room and the bunker, going upstairs until an empty alley. She found herself missing Clarke’s cold touch while she walked through the street back to the place that didn’t felt anymore her home.  



	2. A matter of trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of plot!

Clarke followed with her eyes Lexa’s figure until the hunter disappeared in the street. Even though Clarke had originally gone to confront her, ready to fight, in the end, she was more worried than angry. No matter how used Clarke was to carry the weight of her friends, Lexa always surpassed her. And she feared that one day the hunter would fall under that weight. That was one of the reasons why Clarke should avoid hunters. However, there she was, standing at the top of a building ignoring her wish to follow Lexa and check that she’ll be fine.

Sighing, Clarke turned around and jumped from one building to another. Not very far from her position, Bellamy and the rest of her friends were waiting. They wanted answers and probably the permission to avenge Atom. Permission that, after the new information, Clarke couldn’t give. Lexa hasn’t provided evidence, but Clarke knew her enough to be sure that she had been honest. And Lexa’s honesty complicated everything.

Going as fast as she could, Clarke arrived some minutes later to the building that was connected with their favorite bunker. The contrast between being on the top of buildings to being underground happened so abruptly that the vampire needed to stop for a second. She didn’t have time to overcome, though. As soon as she opened the secret door, Octavia greeted her with a hug.

“Clarke! You are late, how was everything?” she asked without releasing her. Although Octavia pretended to be alright, she was nervous. Considering her situation, Clarke couldn’t judge her.

“Bad, we have problems,” she admitted, quieter. “However, Lexa isn’t our enemy,” she added before pushing her friend away.

Octavia nodded a bit calmer. Clarke would like to talk with her more, especially when she was the only one who could understand her feelings toward the hunters. However, Clarke had to talk first with all of them. Then, she would argue with her mother.

It was going to be a very long night.

With Octavia by her side, Clarke entered the living room. There, distributed in the six couches, were her friends. Bellamy was laying in one of them, something that usually wasn’t allowed it, but being kidnaped and almost killed were reasons enough to let him as an exception. On the closest couch, Miller had an arm wrapped around Monty’s shoulder, who looked worried to his right, where Jasper was drinking. The boy was smiling as if nothing has happened.

The other vampire of the room who had a drink was Raven. She was, with Octavia, the most affected because of the news about the probable war against the hunters, but for different reasons than her friend. Possibly worried about her reaction, Wells was sitting on her left, serious as ever. On another couch, Monroe and Harper were talking, but the two girls shut up when they heard Clarke’s arrival.

Every conversation died while all the attention fell in Clarke’s presence. Octavia left her and took a seat at the other side of Raven, leaving her alone to explain the situation. Clarke cleared her throat before started.

“Okay, I talked with Lexa and I found out that she isn’t the responsibility of Atom’s death. In fact, she doesn’t want a war, that’s the reason why she set free Bellamy.”

As she expected, Raven was the first to start an argument. The brunette glanced at her in disbelief. Even after two years, she still blamed Lexa of Finn’s death. Her hate wasn’t as intense as it used to be, but she continued carrying it. “And you believe her? C’mon, Atom was killed with a silver knife, his assassin was a hunter. Maybe she’s regretting her choice, but she’s the one who started the war.”

Clarke shook her head. “Maybe it was a hunter, but it wasn’t ordered by Lexa. And it isn’t true that she started a war, the same day Atom dies, a hunter was killed too.” She lowered her voice before continuing. “A vampire killed Costia.”

It caused the reaction she expected. Jasper’s dopey smile was wiped from his face, Bellamy sat up on the couch, and Raven’s eyes widened. None of them were close friends of Costia, but they knew her enough to like her. After all, it was impossible to dislike Costia. Even if she was a vampire hunter, she wasn’t aggressive and always was trying to find a peaceful solution. And now she was dead.

“Are you sure about that?” Asked Raven. Not even she believed her question, Lexa would never lie about something like that.

“It’s true, Rae.” Octavia confirmed avoiding her brother’s eyes. “Some hours ago, I talked with Lincoln and he told me the same.”

“You did what?” Bellamy shouted.

Before Clarke could interfere, Octavia stood up and turned toward her brother clenching her jaw. “I went to talk with Lincoln to beg his help to release you! So don’t you dare to judge me, because I did it for you.”

For once, Bellamy didn’t have a reply. Taking advantage of these seconds of silence, Clarke clapped her hands to catch their attention. “I don’t believe in coincidences and I’m pretty sure that Atom and Costia’s deaths are linked. Lexa thinks that they had been caused by an unknown enemy. So, Monty, Jasper, Monroe, and Harper I want all of you to investigate it.”

Jasper raised a hand as if they were at school. “When you say investigate, are you talking about a legal or illegal investigation?”

If the situation weren’t as bad as it was, Clarke would have laughed with that. “Legal, of course. As always,” she said with enough irony that Jasper smiled again. Then, she turned to Bellamy. “Bell, Miller, you two have to talk with your co-workers. We need to know how many soldiers are ready to fight and how many would like to keep the peace.”

Miller nodded, happy with his task, while Bellamy narrowed his eyes. He never liked receiving orders, especially from his friends. He preferred being the leader, a position he lost three years ago but would like to reclaim. However, after some seconds, he also nodded.

“Okay, we can do this. Are you planning to talk with the council?”

“Do I have a choice?” She asked back with a bittersweet tone. “My mom and Marcus are probably on their way. Soon we’ll be yelling at each other. I’m not sure about my mom, but it’s possible that Marcus believes me. However, it’s better if we keep our investigations in secret. All of them.”

Raven crossed her arms and glanced at her. “Those investigations are very good, but what about me, Octavia and Wells?”

Clarke bitted her lip, a bit uncomfortable. “Raven, in your case, I need to ask you a favor that you probably won't like,” Clarke explained taking some steps toward the couch were her three friends were. That way, it felt more private although all their friends continued there.

“Spill it out, Clarke.”

“I need you to find Anya and bring her back.” Raven opened her mouth to protest, but Clarke continued before she could start. “Look, we all know that she went outside the country following Lexa’s orders so it’s probably important. However, right now we need her here. Without Costia and Anya, Lexa can seem vulnerable,” she explained whispering so only Octavia, Raven and Wells could hear her. “Killing Atom was a provocation, but killing Costia is a way to weaken Lexa, both psychologically and politically. Besides, Costia was one of the firmest believers that vampires and hunters can live together. I don’t care what is doing Anya, we need her here and now.”

Clarke hated saying all of that, but it was important that Raven understood how bad their situation was. Even if Raven despite Lexa and wouldn’t be sad if the hunter died, she also knew that they were better with Lexa than with another commander. However, Clarke wouldn’t give all the details of how weak Lexa’s position was considering that she ruled all the vampire hunters of the fucking country. It was a piece of information that nobody should know it. Not even Clarke.

Unaware of Clarke’s thoughts, Raven huffed. “I get it, we should bring Anya back. But why me? You can send anyone.”

“Not anyone,” Octavia pointed, grinning. “If Jasper goes, Anya would beat him with her eyes closed. It has to be someone who can convince her.”

Clarke nodded, internally thanking Octavia for her help. “Right. And someone who has contacts across the country and it’s an expert tracking people.”

“I love receiving compliments, but they aren’t enough,” Raven protested. Although her words, she wasn’t so tense anymore. 

“Then, what do you want? I won’t obligate you, mostly because if you agree you will have to travel to somewhere and we don’t know if it’s safe. So, if you are against the idea, I won’t insist again. We’ll find another solution.”

“Fuck,” she groaned, luckily, in low voice. The four of them were whispering for a while now. It wasn’t necessary, after all, besides Bellamy, the rest were distracted talking between them. “Clarke, it just… I need to know if you want me to go because I’m the best at this work or because you think I’ll be a problem here. I can be civil in front of Lexa, I swear.”

Tired of being on her feet leaning down to look at her friends, Clarke knelt in front of Raven and took one of her hands while Octavia took the other. Wells, after some hesitation, placed his hand on her shoulder, wanting to help too.

“Raven, I don’t think you’ll be a problem,” she promised, softly. “You’ve been doing an amazing job these last two years; I know you can be civil. However, right now I need something more than being civil. I need Octavia, who has good relationships with several hunters. I need Wells, who can have an actual conversation with Pyke. But I’m not throwing you away, I would never do that.”

After all, Clarke would trust her life to Raven, but not Lexa’s.

Raven leaned down and the two vampires stared at the eyes of the other. Slowly, Raven nodded.

Clarke didn’t have time to thank her because, suddenly, the door of the bunker was opened with more force than was necessary. Almost in sync, everybody stood up, all conversation died. With too much experience of Abby and Clarke’s fights, her friends left the living room except for Bellamy, Raven, Octavia, and Wells. They were, after all, Clarke’s closet friends.

When Abby entered the living room, Clarke sighed relieved of seeing that Markus was behind her. Years ago, Clarke wasn’t very keen on the idea of Markus dating her mother. However, the man changed, and, even if he’ll never replace her father and was more like her uncle, she was glad of having him in the family.

“Clarke!” Abby shouted, walking toward her daughter. She was more upset that Clarke had predicted, and furious Abby was difficult to deal with. “Did you really meet Lexa? After everything she had done… What were you thinking?!”

Clarke waited some seconds before answering her questions. It was easier that way. “Have you finished?”

Abby blinked. She opened her mouth to continue yelling, but Markus placed his hand on her shoulder, conciliator as always. “Clarke, Abby was worried. All of us were worried. You can’t go alone; it could have been a trap,” he explained with the calm that the woman lacked right now.

Clarke had to bite her tongue to not say that Lexa wouldn’t use a trap to kill her without talking first. However, if she said that, they would think that she was naïve. And she wasn’t. It was just that they didn’t understand Lexa.

“Okay, I get it. Sorry for making you worry, but I needed to talk to her to understand why she released Bellamy.”

With the mention of his name, Bellamy changed his weigh from one foot to the other, uncomfortable. Being captured by hunters and being released by Lexa must have been a hard blow to his ego.

Abby shook her head, not convinced with her argument. “She’s a hunter, you can never understand them.”

“Not with that attitude.” Clarke almost snapped but managed to control herself. “Mom, Markus, if Lexa released Bell was because she doesn’t want another war. No, let me finish,” she said, seeing her mother’s expression. “Look, Lexa fought really hard to have peace. She doesn’t want this, neither I.”

“Then, why did she kill Atom and capture Bellamy?”

“She said that she didn’t kill him. And yes, she can be lying because she’s a hunter and you can’t trust a hunter and blah, blah, blah... But it isn’t so simple. Costia was killed by a vampire. They think that we have broken our deal. That’s why they captured Bellamy. They wanted justice.”

Her words felt like a ton of bricks. Abby blinked, perplexed. Markus just furrowed his brow, suddenly looking older than he appeared.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” muttered Abby. “We wouldn’t do something like that without provocation. She must be lying.”

“She’s not,” Octavia intervened. She used a neutral tone very unusual on her. It sounded strained, but it was better than when she yelled at authority figures. “I’ve talked with Lincoln. There’s no way she could fake it.”

Abby managed her temple. “That’s not enough, we need proofs.”

Of course, they needed evidence to prove that the hunters were innocents, but not if they were guilty.

“Then, investigate it!” Clarke proposed. It was becoming harder and harder to be comprehensive with her when her mother didn’t make any effort of doing the same. “Pyke will want to fight and kill them, but you two are part of the council too. Please, don’t attack them first. Not until we have proofs that they are the culprits.”

“We could do it,” muttered Markus, still scowling. “We can wait.”

Abby bit her lip, not as convinced as her partner. “But what about Bellamy? What kind of message would we give if we don’t do anything?”

“That we are willing to forgive? After all, Bellamy was only out for… what? Three hours? Four? And they didn’t even hurt him.”

“It still being an offense.”

Markus raised his hands, stopping them. “Bellamy, what do you want to do?”

All the eyes were focused on him, but the vampire only looked at Clarke. “I don’t want to be the reason for a new attack. Let it be,” he said, coolly.

Clarke sighed, relieved, and muttered a silence “thanks” before turning back to the oldest vampires. “Please, I’m just asking you to stop Pyke until we have proofs. And not attack first. That’s all.”

Abby exchanged a look with her boyfriend. After a short visual conversation, the woman sighed. “Okay, we’ll do it.” She stepped closer to her daughter, lowering her voice. Now that she was calmed, it was obvious the worry in her eyes. “Clarke, I want you to promise that you’ll be away from the commander and the rest of hunters until we figurate this.”

“Mum, I won’t promise something that I will break. Even if I wanted,” she continued, ignoring the sulfurated expression of her mother. “I’ve had always been the one who was in contact with Lexa. Some people see us as the faces of our alliance. If suddenly I ignore her, we would lose a lot of supports.”

What she omitted was that Lexa was her friend. Or that she was worried for her and wanted to help her. Or that she would kill for her. No, it wasn’t something that her mother needed to hear. Clarke knew that her people came first, but if she said all of that, maybe they could think otherwise.

“Clarke…”

“However, I can promise that I’ll be careful,” she smiled, aware that it would be more honest saying that she would try to be careful.

✠ ✠

As Clarke expected, once Markus and Abby were gone, Bellamy confronted her. It was nice that he had waited until they left, some years ago he wouldn’t have.

“Clarke, are you sure?”

“Yes, Bell, I’m sure.”

Bellamy crossed his arms, worried. Next to him, Octavia, Wells, and Raven looked at them without intervening. Clarke knew that Octavia and Wells were convinced that trusting Lexa was a good idea. Raven wasn’t very keen on the idea, but she accepted. Bellamy, though, was more difficult.

“What if it’s all a trap?”

“I’ve already told that Lexa wouldn’t lie about…”

“I’m not talking about Lexa,” he interrupted. “What I’m worried about is that this is a trap of Nia and her warriors. Or Lexa’s father, we shouldn’t forget he’s alive. Or another hunter that wants to fight vampires as always. They call themselves vampire hunters for a reason.”

Clarke crossed her arms too and narrowed her eyes. She had already thought about those possibilities. She was also aware that, even if it weren’t a trap, if one of Lexa’s enemies saw her weakened, they would attack her.

“What’s your point?”

“That I’m afraid you are willing to blindly trust and support her because of your feelings for her and not because it’s what is best for us.”

His words hit her like a ton of bricks. Clarke felt an unpleasant and familiar weight in her stomach. A weight she had almost forget. She took a deep breath once. Then, twice. She refused to start yelling.

“Your fears aren’t grounded, Bellamy,” she said, low and coolly. In front of her, he tensed, aware that he had screwed up. “After everything I’ve done, how can you say that I’m not doing this for our people?”

Bellamy stepped back although Clarke hadn’t moved. “That’s not what I meant…”

More hurt that she was willing to admit, Clarke glanced at him. “If I’m taking Lexa’s side is because she is our best option of all the hunters. And that means that she needs to be alive. Or do you prefer going back to the time when we died weekly?”

“No, I…” Bellamy shook his head. “I’m sorry, Clarke.”

“I hope so.”

“Okay,” Octavia interfered with a tense smile. “What if you give a hug to be friends again?”

Bellamy shook his head and Clarke just turned around.

“I pass. I’m going to take a walk.”

In the door, she turned into smoke and disappeared into the city night. Although she didn’t have a specific destination, she ended taking the familiar path that drove her to the hunters’ fort.


	3. Secrets

Lexa’s stoic façade fell down when she finally entered her room. Only there, where nobody could see her, she allowed an expression of the fury and sorrow she needed to hide. Lately, the meetings with her ambassadors were frustrating until a point that she really wanted to hit them in the face. With a chair. Several times.

Heavily breathing, Lexa dragged her feet to her bed and collapsed. It was hard to believe that a week before she was enjoying the anniversary of the end of the war with the vampires. That day, she was naïve enough to think that everything was going to be alright, that in a decade the hate would be a thing of the past and Aden would be the next commander and would follow the same path until, someday, the hunters wouldn’t be necessaries. Now, the peace was falling piece by piece, everyone seemed a possible enemy and Costia was gone.

Although she was alone, Lexa rolled in the bed to lay down and hide her face into a pillow. Some tears and a low sob escaped her control, but she regained her composure before it got worse. However, that didn’t mean she was okay. More than ever, she missed Costia.

In some way, it was ironic that she would do anything to have her best friend back in her room after all the times she protested when Costia came to her room so late. Now, she missed those nights were, instead of sleeping, they chatted about their day or the future. Sometimes, Costia left before dawn, while some nights they fell asleep together. But it was over. Her smile, her optimistic vision of the world, the advice she always had… Everything was gone.

Lexa got up with a jump. She was still wearing her hunter clothes, including all the hidden knives, so she didn’t grab anything else before she opened the secret door behind the library, connected with one of the various paths. The fort of the hunters had been built some centuries ago for builders who thought that it was necessary dozens of secrets paths. If you knew them, you could go from one side to the other or, as Lexa wanted, go outside.

Pressing a bottom, the library moved without making any sound, revealing the entrance of the tunnel. Prepared as always, there was a lantern hidden in a hole of the wall. Lexa grabbed it although the path was so familiar that she could make it with her eyes closed.

Once she was inside, she pressed another button and the door was closed. Lexa was tired and she should use this time to sleep, but she started walking. Somehow, she felt more comfortable there than in her room. In general, the fort has turned into a hostile place and she didn’t feel safe anymore.

Lost in her thoughts, Lexa followed a path without paying attention to where it was connected. Right now, her mind was in another place. The last meeting with her ambassadors some minutes ago didn’t show anything new. Most of them kept repeating that they should attack the vampires and that releasing Bellamy was a mistake. Back there, instead of listening to the arguments she already knew, Lexa had observed them, wondering if one or some of them were traitors.

Of the thirteen, Nia was the most suspicious. She had never hidden the revulsion she felt for Lexa, and Roan had captured Bellamy following her orders. If there was someone who would love to see Lexa’s death and was willing to do anything to succeed, it was Nia.

Nia was the obvious answer, but not the only one. Titus, the man who had the most power in the coalition after Lexa, was extremely insistent that they should fight. In his words, all his years had taught him that you couldn’t trust a vampire. Lexa didn’t want to doubt him, he was her master, almost a parent figure, but it was a possibility.

There was also Indra, who had personal hate against the vampires since a group slaughtered almost everyone in her village. However, lately, she had spent a lot of time with Octavia and she even accepted her relationship with Lincoln, who was like a son for her.

And Lexa couldn’t forget Quint and Tristan, close friends of her father. Neither of them had ever liked Lexa’s decisions about peace with vampires.

The list continued and continued. With the right angle, everyone seemed suspicious, everyone had lost some dear in a vampire’s hands. But… who was willing to ally with a vampire to start a war against more vampires? There was really a traitor?

She was so lost on her thoughts that she almost collided against a door. She had arrived at the end of the tunnel, some kilometers away from the fort. During the last meters, she had gone upstairs without thinking. Maybe she should be more careful.

Cautious, she pushed the door some centimeters, barely opening it. Her pulse quickened when she sensed the presence of a vampire, but she relaxed with the realization that it was Clarke. Forgetting her precautions, she opened the door and stepped out. She immediately was greeted by Clarke’s cheerful voice.

“You know, I never get tired of seeing you coming out of the closet.” 

“Clarke, the first time was funny, now it’s just repetitious,” she said, fighting a smile from appearing on her face.

After closing the door of the closet, Lexa walked toward the vampire who was sitting on a table with her feet on a chair. There were in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city. It was a location that a few hunters knew and, besides Lexa, only Anya knew that it was connected with the tunnels of the fort. Well, Anya and Clarke.

Of all the lines that Lexa had crossed with Clarke, showing her that door was one of the worse. In her defense, it happened in a life-death situation, but what mattered was that Clarke knew it and had never used it without Lexa. That meant something, right?

“So, what are you doing here?” Lexa asked while she sat down next to the vampire but leaving some distance between them.

“I miss you,” she replied with her flirty tone that always sulfurated Lexa.

“Clarke, we saw each other four hours ago, you can’t miss me.”

The vampire raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Four hours? You counted them?” She leaned down a little and placed her hand over Lexa’s, entwining their fingers. “Is possible that you missed me too?”

This time, Lexa failed and couldn’t fight against the smile she felt creeping up on her. It was so good that, when everything around her was breaking down, at least she had one thing that remained the same. She could lie herself saying that she hated when Clarke flirted with her, but the reality was that part of her enjoyed. The other part knew it was too dangerous.

“In your dreams.”

“Oh, believe me, in my dreams you do way more than missing me,” she winked.

Lexa rolled her eyes, amused. They could be like that for hours; however, Lexa decided to change the topic. She was too tired to deal with Clarke’s answers and she had the risk of saying something that she’ll regret later.

“Hum, now I’m curious. Do vampires dream like humans?”

The question caught Clarke off guard. Her smirk turned into a more genuine smile. “Not really, now my dreams are more… vivid, with more details. I don’t know how to explain it, they are different but similar.”

The hunter rubbed the back of her neck, uncomfortable and regretting her question. It was harder being with Clarke when she remembered that the blonde has been a human once. In fact, Clarke had been turned into a vampire some months after Lexa became the commander, five years ago. Not so long ago, they weren’t so different.

“That doesn’t sound bad,” she managed to say, hiding her discomfort.

Clarke nodded, absently. Like Lexa, her thoughts seemed to be somewhere else, far from the differences of dreams. Before she opened her mouth, Lexa knew she wouldn’t like what Clarke was going to say.

“Have you ever considered turning into a vampire?”

The question felt between them with the force of a bomb. If Lexa didn’t feel so wretched in the fort, she would stand up and run back to her room and would try to forget that this conversation happened. However, she stood there with an uneasy feeling creeping from her stomach to her chest.

Seeing that Lexa wasn’t going to answer, Clarke hurried to explain herself better. She was nervous too, aware that it was a taboo question for a hunter.

“Okay, I know that there are some cases of vampires turning hunters to make them suffer. I also know the rejection they received and that they would never be truly accepted.” She clenched her fists, disgusted wrote over her face, before she leaned closer to Lexa, looking with too much intensity. “But image that we manage to stop our fights and there’s a good relationship between us. Image a hunter choosing it and the vampires greeted them. In those circumstances, would you consider it? Would you accept it?”

Lexa didn’t know what Clarke was expecting, but she couldn’t give her an honest answer, especially when that would be “Of course”. It was difficult not to think about it after spending so much time with Clarke and her gang and stop seeing them as monsters. And being a vampire had some awful things as the need of drinking blood or that they got burned under the sun. However, they also had some advantages over humans, like their strength, the fast healing, turning into smoke… But that wasn’t the answer a commander could give.

“With the independence of our possible war, that scenario is not going to happen soon. Some hunters have stopped detesting vampires so much, but that hate won’t disappear in a couple of years. I wouldn’t reject a hunter who decides to turn into a vampire, but most of my people would do it.” She sighed. “Please, tell me that Lincoln isn’t considering it.”

“Nah, I just wanted to know your opinion.”

But, even if she sounded honest, Lexa didn’t believe her. It wasn’t a secret that Lincoln was madly in love with Octavia or that they were in a relationship for the last years. Or that some weeks ago, Lincoln had had insinuated something to test her reaction.

“Clarke, I’m serious. Right now it’s a terrible moment. Some of my ambassadors could demand me the head of the vampire who turns him.”

“Lexa, I’m serious too when I said I wanted your opinion,” she snorted, aware that Lexa wasn’t going to give her a proper answer. “And anyway, why are you so different?” She asked, changing the topic before they start arguing. “I mean, you were raised as a hunter, you should hate us like the rest of your people.”

Lexa didn’t answer immediately. She knew the reason, the exact moment she opened her eyes and saw the truth. However, it wasn’t some information she should share with Clarke, a vampire that could be her enemy in the future. She knew it, but she made the mistake of looking at the blue eyes of the blonde, her tender look. And Clarke deserved some truth.

“I could say it’s thanks to Jaha. Both of them, but especially Wells,” she added to Clarke’s confused expression. “You know that Thelonious killed my mother. When it happened, I was twelve and I decided I’ll kill him to avenge her. I trained harder than before and, some years later, when I became the commander, I had my chance. I guess you remember it, you were there.”

The vampire expression had darkened showing that, indeed, she remembered. It wasn’t a surprise. That had been the first attack Lexa made being the commander and she managed to overpower them.

“I had him on my feet, injure,” she continued. “Just like I dreamed. He was your leader and the man responsible for the death of more hunters I can count, besides my mother’s death. I could finish everything. But then, I raised my head and I saw Wells. Both of you were close enough that I could recognize the horror in his expression and I understood that, if I killed him, it wouldn’t be a difference between us. I would become the monster under Wells’ bed.”

Lexa sighed, lost in the memory. It wasn’t a good one, but it was one of her most important moments. Spare Thelonious was a decision that marked a before and after on her life.

“We would have hunted until your death,” admitted Clarke in a whisper avoiding her gaze. When that happened, Clarke didn’t know yet the participation of Thelonious in his father’s death, so she wouldn’t have doubt going after Lexa. “We would have done it to avenge Thelonious who would have died because you were avenging your mother. And she died because of another revenge after she killed Wells’ mother and… I don’t know how it started.”

“Does it matter?” She sighed again. Part of her was uncomfortable talking about that subject while the other part felt stupidly happy. She didn’t want to forget her motivation. “By the way, why are we talking about this? I don’t think you came here to have a depressing conversation about the time I almost killed Thelonious or the fate of hunters turned into vampires.”

“Actually, no, this wasn’t my plan,” she chuckled. Before Lexa could stop her, Clarke leaned down and placed her head on Lexa’s lap. “I only wanted a break and seeing you.”

Lexa felt a blush creep up her neck and blossom across her cheeks. She almost pushed Clarke away, but she was staring at her so cute that Lexa didn’t find the courage to do it.

“What the hell are you doing?” She hissed, too conscious that Clarke was enjoying seeing her so nervous.

“Having some rest?” She grinned. “Although you seem way more tired than me.”

“True,” she admitted only because it was useless denying it. Even if being a natblida meant that she didn’t need sleep as much a as normal human, she did need sleep. “I should go.”

Fast, Clarke pushed her elbows to be upright. However, instead of walking away, she grabbed Lexa’s arm and pulled her toward her. With another vampire, Lexa would tear herself back even before they could do anything. But Clarke was Clarke and Lexa was exhausted. Before she could blink, she found herself lying atop the vampire, who had her back against the table.

Lexa tried to push up, but Clarke had her arms wrapped around her waist. Her grip was strong and not as disturbing it should be. Lexa shouldn’t be so comfortable in her embrace.

“Clarke, what are you doing?” She warned.

“Well, both of us need some rest. This was the obvious solution.” Although Lexa couldn’t see her expression, she knew that the vampire was smirking.

“What I need is a bed, not a table.” Her protest sounded weak, impossible to be taken seriously.

“If you wanted a bed, you wouldn’t be here. Besides, I can wake you up in a couple of hours.”

Her next protest died in her lips. Clarke’s body, although cold, was comfy. It made her feel safe. _This is a mistake_ , she thought before she closed her eyes and hid her face on the crook of Clarke’s neck.

✠ ✠

Not even in her wildest dreams, Clarke imagined that Lexa would fall asleep in her arms. But here they were.

The table was more uncomfortable than she had expected, but she didn’t dare to move, too afraid of waking Lexa up. It was the first time that Lexa showed this kind of vulnerability, so she was probably worse than Clarke thought. And that was… dangerous in different ways.

Clarke shouldn’t be so invested in the hunter. She shouldn’t be worried about her health or her happiness. But she was. And she didn’t have a valid excuse to justify that it was for her people. No one could believe her. Not even her.

If Bellamy could see them, he’d be fairly mad. Clarke had stormed out of the bunker upset about his accusations although he was partially right.

 _We shouldn’t be here_ , she thought. This was a fucking mistake and she didn’t care enough to stop. Maybe that was the problem. Stop Clarke before she could go too far was Lexa’s role. The hunter established the limits while Clarke joked about crossing them. But right now, Lexa was too stressed to stop her, and Clarke’s jokes had never been jokes.  



	4. Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!

The moment Clarke arrived at the bunker, Octavia greeted her with a hug. Her friend's hug was tense, showing that she was nervous and Clarke couldn’t stop comparing with the one she had shared with Lexa. It didn’t have anything in common, but it reminded her. Even if it had only passed some minutes since Clarke had to left her, she was already missing her.

“O, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” She asked back, pulling her away. Clarke saw that, besides Octavia’s tension, she was also upset. “You disappeared for hours after arguing with Bell. You didn’t even tell us where you were going. I was worried, okay?”

Clarke almost said that it wasn’t a big deal, they didn’t need to be in contact all night, but she shut up in time. After Bellamy’s kidnaping, Octavia had all reasons to be anxious.

“Sorry,” she said, instead. “I’m just used to… you know, not worrying about that. Next time, I’ll text you. I promise.”

She was used to not worrying that a hunter would try to kill her.

Octavia, nodded, understanding the real mean of her words. “It’s okay. I’ll tell the others that you are finally here.”

“Nah, I’ll go with you.”

The others were, actually, only Bellamy, Wells, and Raven. The rest of the gang was outside, probably enjoying their last days before the conflict went worse. The four that had decided to stay were in the living room; Raven tapping in a computer while Wells and Bellamy played chest, but all of them raised their heads when they heard her entering with Octavia.

Raven was the first to go back to her computer with a small grin that could only mean that she was doing something illegal. Wells smiled at her, but his eyes were fixed on Bellamy, who seemed to be hesitating if staying on the couch or stand up. In the end, he chose the first option.

“Humm, I’m sorry for what I said earlier,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I know you have your priorities straight and how hard you’d worked.”

 _Yeah, my priorities are super straight,_ Clarke thought, hiding her doubts behind a smile. Though she had got mad with Bellamy, he had a valid point. No matter how much Clarke tried to deny it, she was willing to do more for Lexa than she should.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t react well either.”

Without realizing that her smile was fake, Bellamy smiled too, relieved that they weren’t in bad terms. Although they were pretty close, Bellamy had never been able to fully understand her. It wasn’t a real surprise, of all her friends, Clarke only had problems hiding her feelings from Wells. The disadvantage of being her childhood friend was that he knew her too well. Probably he was the one who knew her better. _Along with Lexa,_ pointed an upsetting voice inside her head.

They chatted a little, but soon the two boys went back to their game and Raven was completely lost in her illegal activities. Knowing that they wouldn’t suspect, Clarke grabbed Octavia’s wrist and went to her room.

Not all vampires chose to live underground in a bunker, most of them preferred normal houses while pretended to be humans. Clarke and her friends, however, were an exception. Since they wanted to be together far from the adults, some years ago they started searching for big places in the city and that was how they found all their bunkers. The majority were in abandoned houses that once belonged to other vampires. This in particular was from Harper’s dad before he passed away. On the outside, it seemed normal, just an abandoned building. On the inside, however, there were some cells, stairs connected with the bunker, and some other things nobody should know about it.

Clarke smiled when they reached the door of her room and opened it, happy to have that space. The bunker was enormous, it had two floors, so everyone had their own bedroom although it wasn’t strange that they ended sleeping in the living room. Clarke was of the few that was grateful to have her room, that, besides allowing her some intimacy, served as a mural to draw.

All the walls were covered with drawings, some very old, other recent. There was a dense wood, a paint of the sky, and portraits of her friends, among others. Since she was running out of space, the next step would be the ceiling.

Impressed as always, Octavia sat down on the bed staring at the draws. “Wow, it had been too long since the last time I was here,” she muttered.

Clarke shrugged. In other circumstances, she’d love to chat a little and listen to some of Octavia’s idea of the next draw. Tonight, however, she had a different plan.

“O, focus,” she called her trying to not sound too bossy. “After I left, I went to talk with Lexa.”

What she didn’t explain was that their meeting was unexpected, that somehow both of them had thought the same. Or that they didn’t talk too much.

Octavia nodded, unsurprised. “I imagined it.”

“Did you also imagined that we’d talk about the hunters that are turned into vampires?”

With that, the girl almost jumped from the bed. Her eyes widened and looked at Clarke with a mix of anger and fear. “You told her our intention??”

Clarke shook her head. “No, I just asked her opinion because I was curious. But yeah, she thought I was talking of Lincoln even if I say otherwise,” she sighed, aware that Octavia had the right to be mad. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. But I think she already knew it, or at least, she imagined it.”

They stared for some seconds, Octavia narrowing her eyes and looking at her as if she wanted to prove that Clarke was being honest. After some uncomfortable seconds, Octavia bit her lip. Her anger turned into concern.

“And what did Lexa say?” She asked, unsure. “She gave you her opinion, right?”

“She said she would accept it, but she’s afraid that most of the hunters wouldn’t. She… also told me that right now it would be a terrible idea, it could be read as an attack and you could be in danger. I’m sorry, O.”

“Well, then she didn’t tell you anything new,” she snorted while she stood up. With her hands on her pockets, she started walking in circles inside the room. “Fuck, I hate that we are back to this stupid conflict. Why people hate so much being in peace? We were great!” 

“I know.”

“Fuck! This is so frustrating!” Octavia sat down only to stand up a second later, too nervous to stay in one place. “We waited for two years because it was too soon, but how more we’ll have to wait for? Lincoln is twenty-four while I’m stuck in nineteen. At this rate, he’ll seem my father!”

“I know,” she repeated. She didn’t know what else she could say.

Because, hell, she really knew it.

✠ ✠

During the following week, the tension grew, unstoppable. Although they didn’t have new attacks, it was only a matter of time. The vampires of the Ark were divided into two factions; one led by Pyke that wanted another war and the peaceful side led by Markus and Abby. For the moment, the last had more support than Pyke’s, but that could easily change.

With everything, Clarke couldn’t complain. Her mother was keeping her word while her friends worked harder than it seemed. Bellamy and Miller already had the list of vampires that agreed with them and the ones that were against them.

Besides, three days ago, Raven left explaining that she already knew where Anya was. Clarke wasn’t convinced that letting her go alone was wise, but Raven didn’t accept any company and now she was gone, leaving behind Clarke’s regrets of not saying anything to Lexa. The problem was that Clarke knew the hunter too well to be sure that Lexa wouldn’t call Anya back of her secret mission unless she didn’t have another choice. And Costias’s murdered, a possible traitor and an incoming war weren’t enough reasons to Lexa. 

Although Bellamy’s predictions that someone would attack in the first weeks after the death of Costia and Atom, the fragile calm wasn’t broken until the second week. In what it could have been a normal morning, Clarke woke up with the sound of her mobile, warning her that she had a message from Lexa. Considering that Clarke avoided going outside when there was too much light and Lexa sometimes was too busy, they texted a lot, so receiving a message wasn’t unusual. However, the fact that it was a request to meet Indra without any explanation, was weird.

Still laying on her bed, Clarke rubbed her eyes and yawn. At first, she thought that maybe she was so sleepy that she hadn’t read it well, but some minutes later, the message continued being the same.

Worried, Clarke placed upright and turned on the lights on the room. She didn’t need them to see, but they helped her to erase the last bits of sleep. There were only two possibilities for that message. Or Lexa didn’t want to give her more information because she was being watched, or someone was impersonating her.

**Clarke**  
_Okay, cutie ;)_

**Lexa**  
_Thanks, sweetheart :)_

Clarke sighed, relieved. That seemed to be Lexa. No one besides her should know that code they made one night a year ago when both were bored and a bit drunk. They had five phrases more with their corresponding answers to verify. Besides being a useful instrument to verify Lexa’s identity, it was also hilarious seeing Lexa using emoticons. Just in case, Clarke sent another message. Better be safe than sorry.

**Clarke**  
_I hope we’ll see each other soon ^^_

**Lexa**  
_Me too <3_

So, besides having a message of a heart coming from Lexa, now Clarke was sure that it was the hunter who was texting her. She didn’t know yet why Lexa couldn’t give her a proper explanation, though. The temptation of calling her was strong, but Clarke decided against it. If Lexa hadn’t called her, she’d have her reasons.

Too awake for falling sleep again, she left her room and went to Wells'. It was very likely that her friend was awake and, even if he weren’t, he’d easily forgive her. Sometimes, Wells was too good.

Clarke knocked on the door before she entered the room to find the vampire awake as she expected. Like her, he was wearing a pajama with the difference that his clothes weren’t covered by paint stains.

“Clarke? Is everything okay?” He asked, closing the book he had been reading until some seconds ago.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

As they always did when they talked about important stuff, they sat down on the bed, with their backs pressed against the wall. Wells stayed in silence, patiently waiting for an explanation.

“I received a message from Lexa asking me to meet Indra today at eight. No explanations, just that.”

“And… Are you sure that it was Lexa and not someone who had stolen her mobile?”

“I’d already checked it. It was Lexa. And maybe she didn’t say anything because she can’t have that conversation using the phone. It can be important.”

Wells furrowed his brow, but he didn’t have time to answer before Octavia opened the door. Unlike Wells, it was strange that Octavia was awake. And her concerned expression didn’t promise anything good.

“Octavia…?”

“Clarke, have you talked recently with Lexa?” She asked, interrupting her and closing the door behind her.

“More or less. What’s wrong?”

Clarke moved closer to Wells, giving some space so the girl could sit too.

“I haven’t received any text from Lincoln this morning. Before any of you say something, earlier, he had a mission and he promised that he would talk with me before eleven. It’s almost noon and he hadn’t said anything.” She took a shaky breath trying to maintain her composure. “What if it happened something? What if he’s…?”

“O, calm down,” Clarke pleaded, placing a hand on Octavia’s shoulder and squeezing. “There are other possibilities.”

Nodding, Wells stood up to kneel in front of Octavia. His presence had a calming effect on everybody and Octavia wasn’t an exception. Just with one look, the girl relaxed a little. At least she stopped clenching her fists.

Wells averted his gaze from Octavia to exchange a look with Clarke. In her friend’s eyes, she saw his questions. Clarke bit her lip, cursing Octavia without words. She wanted to talk with Wells, but now she had to make a choice. And with Octavia in that state and the possibility of Lincoln in problems, she really didn’t have a choice.

“I haven’t talked with Lexa since yesterday,” Clarke muttered, slowly and trying to imitate Wells' behavior. “However, she texted me some minutes ago asking me to meet Indra this afternoon. And no,” she added when she saw Octavia opening her mouth. “She didn’t say anything about Lincoln.”

“I know it’s hard, but right now there’s nothing we can do,” Wells whispered, holding Octavia’s hands. “Let’s wait. If Lincoln texts you, better, if not, we’ll have some answer tonight. Please, don’t do anything risky.”

Octavia’s expression darkened, probably upset for being caught. It wasn’t difficult, everybody knew her impetuous nature. “I can go to investigate…”

But not even Octavia believed it was a good idea.

Again, someone opened Wells’ door without knocking first. This time was Jasper, who entered with a bright smile with a sleepy Monty behind him.

“Hey! There’s a party and you didn’t invite us?” He asked, cheerful, and oblivious to the ambient.

Clarke sighed while she stood up. “Not really. Go and wake up the others, we have problems.”

Jasper’s smile faded away. “Why do we always have problems?”


	5. On their way

After a lot of arguments, yelling at each other, and throwing pillows from one side of the living room to the other, they managed to agree who would go to meet Indra. If Clarke could freely choose, she’d have select Wells and Bellamy. In every other circumstance, Octavia would be the perfect candidate, but with Lincoln missing, she wasn’t in the best state to have a civil conversation. However, Lincoln was, also, the reason why Octavia would go with them, no matter what.

For Clarke’s disapproval, the team was formed by Wells, Bellamy, Octavia, and Miller. The last one was a request from Bellamy, who wasn’t convinced that it wouldn’t be a trap. Bellamy’s fears were the cause that the rest of the gang wouldn’t be very far from the place of the meeting, ready to intervene if it were necessary. In conclusion, they were going way more than Clarke wanted. She didn’t think it was a trap, but even if it was, she preferred to go with a small group in case they needed to make an easy escape. In moments like those, when she barely managed to explain her opinion, she wondered if she was their leader or not.

When the time to the meeting arrived, Clarke was almost happy to go outside. During the last hours, the ambient in the bunker was so tense that not even Wells had managed to relax it. In comparison, being in the street enjoying the coldness of the night, made Clarke smile.

Acting like humans to not caught the attention of any hunter, the five of them took the bus after sharing a short goodbye with the other group. Being on the bus surrounded by humans was a bit strange. It bought some memories of old and simple days when they were teens waiting to be turned into vampires. Now, everything was more complicated and Clarke couldn’t ignore the friends, lover, and father she lost in the way.

The bus let them near their destination, so, in less than ten minutes, they arrived at the abandoned warehouse where Indra was supposedly waiting. Now that Clarke thought about that, apparently, the city was full of abandoned warehouses that weren’t truly abandoned.

The warehouse was an old building next to other old buildings. It was small and had two doors and several windows, perfect to escape and not the best place to make an ambush. Hopefully, they would get out as they entered, in peace.

The inside of the warehouse was surprisingly clean and so empty that it was impossible to know what it was used before. In the middle of the only room, Indra waited for them behind a table. There were six hunters with her, three at her right, and three at her left. Clarke was pleased when she recognized them. All of them were loyal to Indra and, to an extent, also to Lexa. Besides, they were openly in favor of having a peaceful relationship with vampires. The only bad side was that Lincoln wasn’t with them.

“Welcome,” Indra greeted them, serious as usual. “I’m glad you came. Please, take a seat.”

Before they could even sit down, Octavia was already in front of the hunter, clenching her fists and narrowing her eyes. “Where is Lincoln?” she demanded, unable to control her tempter.

Cursing the moment she agreed to allow Octavia to come, Clarke grabbed her arm and pulled her back a little. They needed to be civilized. “Sorry, she’s nervous,” she apologized to Indra’s disapproval expression. “But she’s also right. Why had you asked us to come?”

Indra furrowed her brow. “Please, take a seat,” she repeated, her voice colder than before. “And I’ll explain everything.”

Aware that Indra’s patient was almost inexistent and they hadn’t come here to leave with their hands empty, Clarke sat down on a chair, pulling Octavia with her.

“Now… Can you explain what’s going on?”

The real question Clarke wanted to do was ‘why Lexa didn’t explain me anything?’, but knowing Indra, she wouldn’t like it.

“What we are going to discuss can’t leave this warehouse,” Indra began. “You can’t say anything to anyone besides the rest of your group.”

“We won’t,” Octavia assured her, quickly. 

Although the security on Octavia’s tone, Indra didn’t continue until all of them gave her their word. Clarke did it after a second trying to not seem as worried as she was.

“This morning Lincoln disappeared during a mission.” Indra’s words felt like a dozen rocks. “We suspect that he’s been kidnaped by a group of vampires.”

Octavia’s shock was the only thing stopping her anger, but when she overcame, she would run away with the only thought of searching for her boyfriend. Clarke knew it and she couldn’t allow it. She exchanged a look with Wells, who quickly took Octavia’s hand to comfort and stop her.

Meanwhile, Clarke’s head was running as fast as she could. Although she hoped to be wrong, she expected Indra’s news. And during the hours that came after Lexa’s short message, she had time to think about different reasons.

“Nobody knows he’s gone, right?”

For the way Indra’s narrowed her eyes even more, Clarke knew that she was right.

“If the hunters discover it, they’d think Octavia did it,” admitted Indra.

Unlike Clarke, who remained calm, Bellamy and Miller gritted their teeth. Octavia’s reaction was worst, she almost jumped on her chair, only stopped for the efforts of her friends.

“I’d never hurt him,” she hissed.

Indra’s eyes softened for a second. “We know, but not everyone thinks like us. And some hunters believe that you are manipulating him. I suppose it also happens with some vampires.”

Clarke nodded, absently, too aware of the rumors about Lincoln using Octavia. That was the prize of being honest about their relationship. After all, Clarke was sure that they were more couples between vampires and hunters, with the difference that others were more subtle. And more afraid of the consequences.

“In conclusion,” Bellamy summarized with his dark eyes fixed on Indra. “Lincoln was probably kidnaped when you were searching and nobody can know it yet. And I suppose you want us to look for him, right?”

“Do not misunderstand me,” Indra replied. While the woman was almost sympathetic to Octavia, her disgust with Bellamy was palpable. Although she didn’t hate all vampires like other hunters, she’d never forgiven some of them. “We are looking for him, but Lexa thinks that we’d have more possibilities if you help too.”

“Okay,” Clarke agreed before Bellamy could continue. “Then, explain everything.”

She did it. For the next hour, Indra, with the help of the other hunters, provided them with the information they had. It wasn’t very difficult; they didn’t have a lot. The most useful piece of information was the track to one of the mountains near the west of the city, the place where Lincoln had disappeared. Although, maybe, disappearing wasn’t the correct word. Everything pointed that had been kidnaped and, since two hunters had sensed a vampire not very far from them, Lexa’s theory about a group of vampires behind the attacks made sense.

And that was all.

It was hard to believe that, in two weeks, that was all the information they had, but the hunters seemed honest. After listening to them, Clarke had more questions than before. If there were vampires in the mountain, how was that any hunter had sensed their presence? How they did manage to kidnap Lincoln? If they didn’t, what happened?

Some years ago, Clarke wouldn’t doubt to go to the mountain although the lack of information. Now, however, she was more cautious.

Sadly, her friends weren’t.

“We are going tonight, right?” Octavia asked, staring at her fiercely once the hunters left them some space to talk.

Clarke wanted to say no, convinced her that it was too soon and they needed a good plan. However, she knew that Octavia was going anyway. With her stubborn nature and her love for Lincoln, she couldn’t be stopped. And she could easily convince Monty and Jasper to go with her, and that would mean that Miller, Harper, and Monroe would go too. So, unfortunately, Clarke couldn’t say no.

“Yes,” she replied. She turned to see the faces of all her friends, who nodded, ones surer than others. “Go back to the bunker to get ready. We need weapons, Raven’s tools, and a map.”

Bellamy narrowed his eyes, aware that Clarke didn’t include herself. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll be with you later. I need to do something first.”

She didn’t explain that she was going to another warehouse. And this time, she wouldn’t allow any company.

✠ ✠

Knowing the hour of the meeting of Indra with Clarke and the fact that the hunter was a woman of few words, Lexa was sure that Clarke would already be in the warehouse. However, when Lexa emerged from the secret door, the warehouse was empty.

More nervous than she was willing to admit, Lexa sat down on the table in the exact spot where some nights ago she had slept. It had been two weeks, but it seemed to be in another lifetime and, somehow, the most peaceful moment she had since she found Costia’s body. 

Luckily, her estimations weren’t incorrect and Clarke arrived two minutes later. The vampire entered using the window although the front door was open. She talked toward Lexa trying to seem calm, but her steps were too fast. Instead of sitting next to her, Clarke kept walking until she was in front of Lexa. She placed her hands on the table, being as close as she could be to the hunter without touching.

Lexa fought against her urge to move away or, worst, lean closer. She just stood there, with her back straight and staring at the vampire’s eyes. During the last two weeks, they had barely hang together and this won’t be the exception.

“I’m glad you came,” Lexa began with a controlled and calmer voice that didn’t manifest her nerves. “Sadly, we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Why?”

“Quint reported two disappearances of hunters an hour ago. Soon, Titus will ask for an emergency meeting with all the ambassadors.”

“Including Indra,” Clarke ended, furrowing her brow. “Then, why are you here?”

“I thought you would come. And I’m sure you have plenty of questions.”

“In fact, I do.” Clarke lowered her voice until it was a whisper. “I’m going to send my friends there, it is safe?”

After all the lies Lexa was used to saying lately, it was strange being honest with Clarke. It was also terrifying and a relief at the same time. “Probably not. I don’t think it was a coincidence they captured Lincoln of all the Indra’s squad. I don’t know if, whoever who did it, it’s also waiting for your group. Maybe it’s a trap and Lincoln a mere bait. Or maybe Lincoln was their objective and they don’t except any movement.”

The reality was that, as frustrating as it seemed, Lexa didn’t have any clue. She didn’t anticipate Lincoln’s kidnapping. And not even his disappearing had brought some light. Even if she was sure, she hadn’t found out yet evidence of the existence of another group of vampires or, if they were receiving help, who was the traitor. Lexa felt lost and pushed every day a little more against her allies.

“That’s… so fucking perfect,” Clarke groaned. “If Indra has to come back to the fort, at least I want her squad.”

“Are you sure you want them to stay?”

Clarke meditated for some seconds before nodding. “Yes, at least at first to show us the zone. However, I don’t think it’s good that they stay all night. And about them… Are you sure they are loyal to you?”

Lately, Lexa wasn’t sure about anyone’s loyalty, she had even suspected about Indra a couple of times. However, in normal circumstances, her answer would be yes. “I think so, they are the closets hunters to Indra. And Anya had a good opinion of all of them.”

“Speaking of Anya…” Clarke muttered, unsure.

She stepped back, giving the space Lexa wanted at first. Now, it only made her feel more anxious.

“What about Anya?”

Clarke bit her lip, her eyes sparkling with something that Lexa could only define as guiltiness. “It’s possible that I sent Raven to look at her.”

“Why would you do that?” She asked, not sure how to feel with that information.

“Because, even if you deny it, you need her.” She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “I’m sorry for doing it on your back, but I knew that you wouldn’t accept it.” 

Lexa closed her eyes, mad that Clarke was right. However, it didn’t erase the sensation of being betrayed. No matter how much she missed Anya or that, right now, her mission wasn’t as important as her current situation, Clarke didn’t have the right to make that choice.

Briefly, Lexa had the impulse of standing up and punching the vampire. She ignored, just like the urge of yelling. She wasn’t that mad with Clarke, no when her intentions were frank. No, she was just tired.

“You should leave,” she said, using the most emotionless tone she had.

Although her intention was avoiding an argument, Clarke looked at her hurt. “Lexa…”

“I understand why you did it,” she explained, shortly, not wanting to make Clarke feel guiltier. “Now, your friends are waiting for you.”

It wasn’t what Clarke wanted to hear, and she was probably thinking that Lexa was more upset. The vampire, after some hesitation, muttered a low okay and turned around. And Lexa knew she couldn’t let her go like that.

Without thinking, the hunter stood up and took a couple of steps to grab Clarke’s wrist. The vampire looked at her, surprised. Lexa wanted to let her go, pretending it never happened, but then she would make it weirder. Cursing herself, Lexa stood there for some seconds avoiding Clarke’s gaze.

“Good luck,” she muttered, finally.

Lexa released Clarke’s wrist and, slowly, she knelt in front of her. She didn’t need to look up at her to imagine her confused expression. Pretending that she wasn’t improvising, Lexa untied a small knife she had on her boot. It was only one of the dozen of knives she had hidden in her robe and one of the few that wasn’t made of silver.

Before she could regret her decision, Lexa hid the knife on Clarke’s boot without saying anything. Only when the knife was tied and nobody could see it, she stood up.

“Take care.”

Although Clarke nodded, she didn’t seem to have listened to her. Her cheeks had an unusual pink tinge for a vampire and her eyes told more than she could ever say. “Thanks. See you soon, Lexa.”


	6. Hide and seek

They were some kilometers away from the city, walking through the mountain in the dark looking for Lincoln and his kidnappers. Well, the mountain vampires, as Jasper had started calling them. It was an important mission, probably a dangerous one, and, however, Clarke was still thinking in the way Lexa had grabbed her wrist, how she knelt in front of her. And it was distracting.

Clarke took a deep breath, trying to focus. Her friends, including Lincoln, were counting on her, she couldn’t be so distracted. But it was hard, especially since she didn’t know exactly what they were looking for and, for the last hours, she hadn’t found anything. And for the messages in the chat’s group, the rest weren’t lucky either.

“Clarke!” Jasper groaned behind her. “I’m bored, can’t we play I spy or something?”

“No,” she hissed for the sixth time in the last hour. “We can’t be distracted,” she reminded him. She felt like a hypocrite saying that since she was clearly distracted. Not that Jasper had to know it.

“You aren’t funny.”

“This isn’t funny.”

Jasper shut up, giving Clarke some minutes of silence before he started protesting again. Although Clarke had offered herself to be with him when they’d decided to split in pairs, it was difficult not regretting her choice. However, they were the best combination to keep his friend focussed. Jasper had started the searching with energy, attentive to every detail, but he was easily distracted and he had lost his concentration. If they had paired Jasper with someone like Monty, who was weak to his best friend, or Miller, who didn’t have patience with him, it could have ended very badly. 

So here they were, Clarke distracted because of a pretty and unreadable hunter, and Jasper distracted simply because he was Jasper.

Sighing, Clarke took her mobile to check that she didn’t have any new messages in the chat. She didn’t have any message from Raven, either. The last time she talked with her friend was that afternoon when Clarke explained a little about their situation. Their conversation had been short and frustrated since neither of them was advancing in their investigations. Raven knew where Anya was, but she hasn’t been able to contact her or know what she was doing there. And Clarke had had the change to ask Lexa, but she screwed up.

Clarke didn’t think she was wrong sending Raven to look for Anya, but she felt bad anyway. She should have talked with Lexa first. Instead of deciding that the hunter wouldn’t agree, she would have tried before sending Raven. What hurt her the most wasn’t her regrets, though, but the way Lexa had closed herself, putting her walls back. But their meeting didn’t end as badly as it could have ended. It was just… confused. 

She was pushed away from her thoughts when she heard a crack on her right. Clarke stopped so abruptly that Jasper almost crashed against her back.

“What the hell…?!”

Clarke turned toward her friend and covered his mouth, hushing. “We aren’t alone,” she whispered. “Send our location.”

However, before the boy could take his mobile, a bomb felt to the ground. Clarke kicked it to throw it away, without realizing that it wasn’t the only bomb. Soon, the forest was filled with smoke. Clarke covered her own face, but it was too late and she was already feeling a bit dizzy.

 _Fuck, we need to get out of here_ , she thought. She failed when she tried to turn into smoke, she was too dizzy.

Coughing, Jasper felt on his knees, Clarke following shortly, unable to run. It was then when four figures emerged from the trees. At first, she thought they were aliens, but her cloudy mind managed to see that they had human forms covered with hazmat suits.

Clarke tried to catch her gun, but her body wasn’t answering her. Instead, with her last strengths, she grabbed her mobile and squeezed it, crushing it and cutting her hand in the process. That would send an alarm to the rest.

 _Raven is going to kill me._ Was her last thought before everything turned black.

✠ ✠

The meeting with her ambassadors took longer than Lexa would like. The worst part was feeling that it was Nia’s trap to took Indra out of her way to look for Lincoln. However, Lexa also knew how to play her cards and some ambassadors weren’t pleasant for being in a reunion past one in the morning.

“It’s late and we aren’t making any process,” Lexa pointed after catching Tristan yawning. “We should continue tomorrow.”

Although Nia’s protests, not everyone was willing to spend all night with a matter that wasn’t so urgent. The disappearances were important, but after agreeing to look for them, they didn’t really have anything else to do besides listening to the arguments without evidence that it was caused by the Ark. That was, for now, the only way that Lexa had to stopped them. The vampires didn’t take any retaliation for Bellamy’s capture and no evidence pointed to them. As much as Quint, Tristan or Nia wanted to go after them, they didn’t have a good motive.

Tired, Lexa waited to be the last in the meeting room before leaving. She wished she could ignore Titus on the frame of the door, but she couldn’t. They walked through the empty hallway together, the man a step behind her.

After years of blindly believing his words, it was still strange feeling his disapproval. Part of her, the same that had been afraid of the vampires and couldn’t forgive the death of her mother, shivered for the cold eyes in her back. Having Titus behind used to make her safe, it brought the security that he was protecting her back. Now, instead, it made her feel uncomfortable.

 _Maybe that’s the reason why Luna left,_ she thought. _Maybe she realized how oppressive Titus is._ The mystery about the disappearance of the girl that had been like a sister to her still bothered her after all these years. Luna could have become the next commander, instead, she left one night without saying goodbye. Lexa had believed that Luna was murdered, but some months ago she received a message from a friend of Costia saying that she saw her. Now Anya was looking for her.

With the obnoxious Titus’ presence on her back, Lexa cursed Clarke for going after Anya. As much as Lexa craved Anya’s presence, being away from Polis was safer. They wouldn’t murder her as they did with Costia. However, Lexa also knew that she couldn’t hide the truth forever and Anya would be furious once she found out what happened in her absence. 

Titus didn’t say a word until they were almost at Lexa’s room.

“I tried, but I don’t understand,” he said, his voice low and cold. “Why are you protecting them?”

Lexa turned her face a little without stopping. “Because we don’t have any proof against them.”

“We don’t need it, they are our enemies, they’ll always be. Your mother would be disappointed,” he added.

Pretend that the mention of her mother didn’t bother her was hard. However, Lexa was a master in masking her feelings. “Don’t play my mother’s card. She’s dead, we don’t know what she would think.”

“She was killed by a vampire,” he pointed as if Lexa could ever forget it.

“And her killer is rooting in a prison,” she remained him.

They stopped when Lexa reached her door. She turned, crossing her arms over her chest. She hated having this conversation with him and that he’ll never support her. But, above everything, she hated that he was trying to make her feel like a child again.

“Lexa, you need to reconsider it.”

“I’m not going to change my mind. Maybe it’s you who should reconsider it. Good night, Titus.”

He furrowed his brow, looking at her, disappointed. “Good night.”

Lexa entered her room wondering if Titus’ disgust of her ideas was a reason to betray her. She really hoped no. While she wouldn’t be surprised by Nia or Quint, Titus had been her teacher and she trusted him. He would never betray her like that… Especially if it meant working with a different group of vampires.

Although her body was asking her to lay on the bed and sleep, Lexa decided to look first at her mobile in case there were any new from Clarke. Surprisingly, she had received a message. Not from her, but from Wells. With her surprise turning into worry, Lexa opened the chat and read the short message.

Her world turned upside down. Clarke and Jasper were missing. They had found a trail of Clarke’s blood. 

Lexa took a shaky breath before she went to the tunnel behind the bookshelves. There, where nobody could listen to her, she called Wells, breaking one of the rules she had placed in the first place. She didn’t care. Right now, if Clarke was in danger, she wouldn’t hesitate before breaking all the rules.

✠ ✠

The first thing Clarke noticed when she opened her eyes was the headache, worse than every hangover she ever had. Secondly, she didn’t know where she was. In the last place, but not because of that less important, that she was chained.

Clarke closed her eyes, taking shorts breaths in an attempt to not losing her calm. She had been in worse situations; everything would be okay.

After some minutes, she opened her eyes again, this time with the objective ok knowing more about her surroundings. She was on her feet enchained in the middle of a room that looked like a laboratory. Not a good sign. She tried to move, but the chains on her hands were fixed to the roof and didn’t give her any movement. Although the ones on her feet were looser, it wasn’t enough to take a step. That wasn’t a good sign either. Whoever who had trapped her knew how to chain a vampire. At least, she could move her head.

She tried to turn her body into smoke, but her head was spinning and, whatever the smoke bomb had, continued affecting her. Unable to break free, she analyzed the room. Immediately, her attention was caught with the black cages that were some meters away from her. They were at least a dozen of them, each one big enough to have inside a human. And, considering the growling that came from there, it looked like beasts were trapped inside. Clearly, that was the worst sign.

She wondered if Lincoln and Jasper were inside one of the cages, but before she could have time to consider if asking would be a good idea, a door that was behind her was opened. Unconsciously, Clarke jerked her head toward the sound, regretting one second later not pretending to be asleep. Now was too late for a show.

Clarke saw a man and a woman, both on their thirty, walking toward her. Her instinct made her paid special attention to the man. He was blonde and wore an elegant suit, remarking that he had money and status. Although he didn’t seem strong, he looked dangerous and Clarke wished to be in every other place.

 _At least now I know that Lexa was right, these two are vampire,_ she thought, grinning. She was sure even though they had a strange smell.

“Oh, you are awake,” the man said with a bright and fake smile while he moved closer. “I was dying to talk to you, Clarke.”

If she didn’t have enough bad signs, now she had another one. _How the fuck does he know my name?_

“Sadly, I can’t say the same,” she replied mirroring his smile. “I don’t have the pleasure to know you.”

He laughed showing his white sharp teeth. “Well, I’m Cage. But my name won’t be useful to you. After all, you are going to die tonight.”

Although the evident threat, Clarke wasn’t as worried as she should be. She had heard the same phrase at least five times before. It was enough to lose any respect for the thread.

“And my friend will have the same fate as me?”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll take care of Jasper. He seems to be a nice boy, not like you. You’ll end like your allies,” he pointed to the cages. “Before you ask, yes, they are hunters. I think one of them is your friend,” he pretended to think. “Lincoln?”

For the first time since she woke up, Clarke felt real fear growing inside of her. However, it wasn’t anything compared with the fury.

“What did you do?” She hissed, clenching her jaw.

“Just a little experiment, nothing serious.” He waved his hand. “We created a new race of humans: the reapers. They are…” He made a dramatic pause. “You know what? Never mind. You’ll find it very soon.”

Smiling, Cage took a step to his right, allowing her to see the woman that was with him. She seemed to be putting a red substance into a syringe, a combination that Clarke didn’t like a single bit. Although she didn’t want to seem hopeless, she failed and tried to push her arms away. The chains didn’t move. She only managed to hurt her wrists and make Cage’s smile widen.

“Don’t worry, Clarke, soon you’ll forget everything.”

“Then, would you tell me your evil plan?”

“My evil plan?” He chuckled. “I’m not the villain, I’m a savior of my people.” He turned his head to the door, with the typical smile of a villain. “Emerson,” he called.

Not even a second later, another man entered the lab. This one was older and looked like a guard. Unlike his boss, he didn’t smile.

Cage, after exchanging a look with the woman, turned his attention to Emerson. “Dr. Tsing had ended with the preparations, knocked out our patient.”

Clarke didn’t see what he did, but she felt the electric shock on her neck. Although the pain, she didn’t scream, she wouldn’t give them that pleasure. Dizzy, she was unable to keep her head straight, but she tried to follow Tsing's movements. She drew some blood from Clarke’s arm before injecting the strange substance.

This time, Clarke failed and started screaming.

Her body was burning as, if instead of blood, now was a fire on her veins. Her body convulsed, still trapped by the chains, without control. As the minutes passed, the pain started to decrease, but it didn’t disappear.

Far from her, she caught some words of a conversation between Cage and Tsing but couldn’t understand them. Suddenly, her body felt to the ground, free of her chains. However, she couldn’t move it. She felt that someone, probably Emerson, carried her. Her vision was blurry, but she realized that they were going to lock her into one of the cages. With her new perspective, she saw that they weren’t cages but cells. And she couldn’t do anything to stop Emerson.

 _I’ll kill you. All of you_ , she promised when Emerson threw her to the inside of the cell and closed it.

She stayed lying until she heard the sound of someone closing the door. Only then, she made an effort to put herself into a sitting position. Through the bars of the cage, she saw the other captives. It was worse than she expected. They seemed more like savage animals than humans. Besides growling, their eyes were completely red, lost any spark of intelligence. And that was her fate.

Shivering, Clarke looked every face, searching for some familiar traits. She immediately recognized Lincoln trapped on the cell at her right. His expression, always soft, was gone. 

He seemed furious, punching the bars without realizing that it was useless.

“Lincoln,” she whispered with tears on her eyes. She blinked them back, it wasn’t the moment to cry. “I’m going to let us free and you’ll see Octavia again.”

He stopped punching when he heard Octavia’s name and turned his head toward her.

That was the only push Clarke needed to start working on her plan. Her body ached and her arms felt heavy, but she managed to introduce a hand in her pocket. As she feared, her pistol was gone and, after another investigation, she didn’t find her knife either. With her mobile destroyed, she only had one hope.

Slowly, she searched inside her boot for Lexa’s knife. She smiled when her fingers touched the tiny knife handle. The hunter had been better than her captors. _Thanks, Lexa, I owe you one,_ she thought.


	7. Toxic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Depictions of violence. I mean, I'm terrible describing, so there isn't anything graphic, but I'll put the TW just in case.

Lexa was the commander. She had united the hunters of different cities and managed to ally with vampires in less than five years. She had fought in two wars and countless battles. She was a skilled warrior and knew how to use every weapon. 

Lexa was the commander, yet, she felt powerless.

What was the point of being the commander if she couldn’t command her people when she needed them? Her ambassadors had too much power. Or maybe she worried too much. Either way, that was an issue she should solve. Not now, though.

She left the fort alone after sending a message to Indra and Tris, Anya’s second. In the absence of her friend, she needed to rely on the person that Anya was training, even if that person was a fourteen-year-old girl. What an amazing backup.

Lexa went through the tunnels again, only that this time she took a different path that was connected with the garage. It was empty, normal considering the hours, so she selected the more silent motorcycle she had without any complication. The fastest way would be going through the front door, however, there were guards there. They would let her go without making any question, but some of them would notify her absence to Nia, Titus, or the rest of the ambassadors. And they couldn’t know it yet.

That was how Lexa ended carrying the motorcycle back to the tunnel, a place that wasn’t constructed thinking about any vehicle. It was slow and frustrating, but Lexa was patient. Once she was in the warehouse she had met with Clarke a couple of hours ago, she replied to Indra and Tris’ messages and drove to the road.

In comparison to the time she had spent on the fort, going to the mountain zone outside the city was fast. Less than ten minutes later, she parked the motorcycle where Indra’s squad was waiting for her. There were only six hunters, seven if she counted herself, and all of them were tired. No matter how much training they received, they could never work as well at night as they worked during the day.

Feigning a confidence she was far from feeling, Lexa walked toward Artigas, Indra’s second. “Lead the way,” she commanded.

Considering they were in a mountain and the only light came from their lanterns, Lexa thought that she would need Artigas’ help to find the vampires. However, since they were yelling at each other, it turned to be easy.

The hunters walked together, all of them with their weapons in their hands. Lexa made a gesture so they lowered their weapons before they arrived with the vampires.

Wells was the first to notice her presence, probably because he was the only one who wasn’t in the middle of an argument. The rest seemed lost without Clarke. Monty was sitting on the ground with his arms wrapped around his legs. Next to him, Miller, Harper, and Monroe were arguing. However, the worst were Octavia and Bellamy, who looked ready to punch the other. Although all of them had an aspect of being in their twenty, now they were acting like kids.

Behind her, Lexa knew that the hunters were sharing embarrassed glares, not used to the lack of control in the vampires. Even Lexa was a bit embarrassed.

“Could you raise your voices even more? Maybe someone hasn’t heard you yet,” she asked, catching their attention.

For a moment, all the eyes were on her and the silence settled on the mountain. It passed faster than Lexa would want.

“What are you doing here?” Bellamy demanded, angry, and without any respect.

Indra’s squad tensed, but Wells interceded before someone could raise a weapon. He put himself between vampires and hunters.

“I called her. We had less than four hours before the dawn, we need her.”

“Really?” Miller turning toward her, crossing his arms. “And how is she supposed to help us alone? She didn’t even bring an army with her.”

“That’s because we don’t need an army,” she replied, taking some steps to be next to Wells. She omitted the part that, even if she wanted to bring it, she couldn’t call her army.

“We only need a distraction.”

Octavia narrowed her eyes. She had worked with Indra and was, besides Wells and Clarke, one of the few vampires who could accept work under her orders. “What’s your plan?”

Before the rest of Clarke’s friends could begin a new argument, Lexa started talking. She didn’t have a plan, only an outline. It was going to be enough, though.

“Today, three hunters disappeared, however, Lincoln was the only one of Triku. I think he was a bait for you and probably the real goal was Clarke.” _And I send her to the trap,_ she thought. “If that’s the case, the kidnapers had their objective and no reason to take any risk. But thanks to Clarke’s mobile and her blood, you can track her, right?”

Wells nodded. “We know where we lost Clarke’s signal and we can trace her blood. We can’t say the same about Jasper’s, something is blocking his mobile.”

“Okay, we can work with that. We have to go as far as Clarke’s trace lets us. Even if we don’t find the place where the kidnappers are hiding, they’ll come out.”

“How can you be so sure?” Bellamy asked. “If Clarke was her objective, now that they have her, they don’t need to come for us. No if we are a group of six vampires and seven hunters.”

“They’ll come out. If Clarke was their objective all along and they are also behind Costia’s dead, they’ll come for me.” Lexa took a knife and started playing with it, throwing it to the air to catch it before it could fall. “I’ll be the bait.”

That wasn’t a plan that Indra’s squad liked it but there were the right words to convince the vampires.

“It’s… dangerous,” Bellamy muttered after a short moment of silence. Although he didn’t say it, everyone understood the part of ‘it’s dangerous for you’. “Are you sure?”

Of course not, she wasn’t. In general, her plans were that: plans. She worked on the details and had at least two backout plans in case the first failed. Now she was ready to use herself as a bait against some enemies that she barely knew something. And if they had captured Clarke, they were skilled. Or Clarke had allowed being captured, but Lexa feared the first option.

“We don’t have a choice,” she said although she actually had more possibilities. “Besides personal feelings and the fact that they had Jasper, Lincoln, and more hunters, we can’t let them have Clarke. She’s too important to our alliance. And if we fight against each other, they will win.”

With Clarke gone, the alliance would eventually fall apart. Abby wouldn’t support it and Pyke would end gaining more power.

They discussed for more minutes until they were ready to follow the track. They split into two teams, the first who lead the way and were ready to be attacked, was formed by Lexa, Wells, and Monty. The rest were behind, at some distance.

Monty led the way, his eyes glued to his mobile. Two meters away, Lexa found herself walking close to Wells. It was strange how one time and another Lexa was connected with the vampire. Both had lost their mothers, Well’s in hands of Lexa’s, and Lexa because of Thelonious, and, although their fathers were alive, they had lost them in a way too. Tonight, what connected them was the same concern about Clarke’s security.

After walking in silence for ten minutes, Wells turned to her. In the dark, his eyes seemed completely black. “Do you think we can defeat them?” 

“I hope so. And even if we don’t, maybe it’s enough to cause a distraction. Clarke has a lot of recurses, a little distraction can be what she needs to escape.”

Wells nodded, neither of them pointing out the fact that maybe it was too late and Clarke was already dead. Lexa had avoided mentioning that possibility in front of the others. She had the irrational thought that saying it out loud would make it more possible. And she couldn’t lose Clarke. 

As if he could sense her line of thoughts, Wells squeezed her arm in a way that was more comforting than Lexa would like to admit. She forced a smile.

“I’m curious of how they captured them,” muttered Lexa to think in everything but Clarke’s death. “If Clarke didn’t have any option better than destroying her mobile, it should have happened very fast.”

“And how is that she didn’t turn into smoke?” Asked Wells, understanding her. 

Together, they talked about different possibilities and how to face each one.

✠ ✠

Even with the knife’s help, opening the padlock of the cage was harder than Clarke thought. In another situation, she would already be out. Now, her fingers were swollen and didn’t work as always. And the headache wasn’t helping either. Besides, whatever they had injected, was blocking her abilities and she continued without being able to turn into smoke.

After what she felt like hours, she finally listened a click and, with a simple push, she opened the door. The next part of her plan, though simple, was hard. She staggered out of the cage and fell to the ground. The world was spinning around her. If it wasn’t enough, she was sure that the red spot she was seeing wasn’t actually there.

Clarke was in a race against the venom they had injected. And she was running out of time.

Pushed by her willpower, she stood up and took some steps to the table where the doctor had been working. She opened some drawers until she found the syringes filled with the red substance. She took the four syringes and shoved her into her pant pockets. Luckily, she would manage to not break all of them in her escape.

Now that she was outside of the cage and had the syringes on her power, she only had to find a way to leave the lab. She looked at the cages and all the humans trapped inside. Okay, she also had to find a way to leave with the reapers. She didn’t want to leave them there, especially Lincoln.

Maybe in other circumstances, she could come with a brilliant plan. Or at least a decent plan. Now, however, her head was so dizzy to even try it. She was going to improvise and hope to be lucky.

After an infructuous search, dragging her feet Clarke returned to the cages. Using her strength and Lexa’s knife, she opened all the cages. Although they seemed to have a violent tendency, the humans didn’t attack her. Or they weren’t as violent as they seemed, or they recognized Clarke as one of them. And seeing how they were destroying the lab, it was probably the second option.

When they were all free and had managed to throw all the cages and broke the lab utensils, Clarke realized that probably released them wasn’t so good idea. They were causing such a mess that it was strange that nobody had come to see what was happening. Too late to change her mind, though.

Clarke’s next research was more effective and she found a free chain. She turned to look for Lincoln, who luckily wasn’t very far from her. Of all of them, he was the calmest. “Hey, Linc, could you put this precious chain. Octavia would appreciate it.”

The hunter still stood and let that Clarke closed the fetter on his neck. Hopefully, in that context, Octavia wouldn’t be mad knowing that Clarke was dragging her boyfriend with a chain like a dog. The thought made her smile, but it didn’t last long when she realized that the red spot on her eyes was getting bigger.

“Okay, guys. Time to leave.”

Dragging Lincoln with her and hoping the rest would follow her, she kicked the door of the lab. At first, she didn’t achieve anything, but when all the reapers launched their bodies to the door, they managed to throw it down.

“That’s what I called teamwork,” she joked to herself. Right now, her humor was one of the few things she had left.

The outside of the lab turned to be a hallway. Clarke needed some seconds to understand that the whistles weren’t caused by her imagination, either the red lights. Someone had turned on an alarm.

All of them remained some seconds in the middle of the empty hallway, lost. There was no sign of another living creature or the exit. The reapers took the initiative and, as if they were following a path, they started running to the left. Lincoln tried to follow them, but Clarke was holding his chain.

She was still hesitating if going with them when her nose caught a familiar scent. She started salivating and her stomach grunted, suddenly aware of the worse hunger she had ever had. Unconsciously, she started walking in the same direction as the reapers.

Her vision was becoming redder and redder and her head was dizzier. However, when she started running, she tightened her grip on Lexa’s knife. She needed to remember her. Somewhere, Lexa was bleeding and she needed to remember that the hunter was her friend.

✠ ✠

It was one of the worse fights Lexa had ever been. She wasn’t familiar with this part of the mountain and, though she liked forests, her enemies knew the zone better than her. If it wasn’t enough, the smoke bombs worsened her vision and forced her to cover her face with the scarf she luckily had grabbed before leaving the fort. Monty didn’t share the same luck and he was laying on the ground unconscious while Harper and Miller protected him.

However, the worst part was that nobody had her back. Until now, she had had someone in every important fight. Costia, Anya, Luna, Indra, Titus… Even Clarke a couple of times. She had always fought with someone she trusted. This time, the closest person to that category was Wells, but they didn’t have experience fighting together.

In retrospect, it wasn’t surprising that she had been hurt. The cut in her arm was clean and superficial, but it attracted the attention of all the vampires, both allies and enemies. Meanwhile, she was still waiting for the backup. Before they started fighting, she had sent a message to Indra and Tris, so they should be on their way now. Hopefully, they wouldn’t arrive too late.

Ignoring the stupid urge of sending another message, Lexa threw her knife to a vampire that was too close to Octavia. She didn’t check if she had hit them, she was already grabbing another knife, ready for the next enemy.

As the minutes passed, it started to seem obvious that the mountain vampires had underestimated them. Maybe they were more than Clarke’s and Lexa’s team together, but they weren’t warriors. Without the surprise on their side, they couldn’t win that fight.

As if they had arrived at the same conclusion Lexa had, a sudden noise of a dozen of grows broke into the forest. The screams caused Lexa to turn her head, alarmed when she saw some creatures that looked like humans but certainly weren’t. The mountain vampires started to run away, but the creatures attacked them. 

“What the hell?” Exclaimed someone, maybe Bellamy.

Lexa didn’t pay attention; her eyes were caught on two figures she did recognize immediately. “Clarke? Lincoln?” She gasped.

Clarke turned to her, moment Lexa saw her completely red eyes. Before she could ask herself what had happened, the vampire ran in her direction, too fast that Lexa could only jump back when the blonde launched herself.

Somewhere not far from there, someone was yelling Clarke’s name, but the blonde ignored them. She went against Lexa, this time moving even faster, managing to capture Lexa’s neck so violently that she sent the hunter to the ground.

Lexa released her scarf to grab Clarke’s hand while with the other tightened her grip on the knife. She didn’t know what was happening with her, but she didn’t come so far to kill her now.

“Clarke,” she tried to call her.

Clarke leaned down with some kind of recognizing. Having her closer, Lexa saw that, as she thought, her blue eyes were now completely red. The pupil, iris… now everything was red. If Lexa didn’t know her so well, she could have confused her with somebody else. But no, that was Clarke… Her friend.

The vampire stopped pressing Lexa’s neck, but she didn’t release it either. She seemed to be having a fight inside of her. And Lexa, still holding her knife, was having her own fight. 

Before one of them could decide, Wells and Artigas tried to push Clarke away, grabbing a shoulder each one.

“Clarke, what are you doing?” Wells asked, his voice filled in despair.

With their touch, Clarke jerked her body, making Artigas felt to the ground. She raised her free arm and Lexa was surprised to find the knife she had given her before.

“Clarke,” Lexa repeated, catching again her attention. “It’s me, Lexa.”

Those words stopped her. With her red eyes wide open, Clarke started directly at her. “Lexa,” she groaned.

Around them, the battle was ending, the mountain vampires trying to run away, but Lexa didn’t care. Artigas and Wells observed them in tension how Clarke, slowly, released Lexa’s neck. And then, before one of them could do something, the vampire stabbed her own neck with Lexa’s knife.


	8. Bleeding out

Lexa was covered in Clarke’s blood. Her hands, the same ones that were pressing the cut on the vampire’s neck, were completely soaked. Clarke was bleeding out and Lexa couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Commander,” Artigas called her. Unlike Wells, who had knelt on the ground, stunned, he continued on his feet with a weapon on his hand. “Our enemy is running away, what are your orders?”

_Save Clarke,_ she wanted to say. Instead, she took a deep breath, searching for her usual calm. “Indra and Tris are on their way. Wait for them and tried to capture the turned hunters. If it’s possible, capture some of the mountain vampires. I wanted them, dead or alive.”

Lexa wasn’t looking at him, but she didn’t need it to know that Artigas made a little and unnecessary reverence. He turned around, barking her orders to the rest of the squad. In silence, Bellamy took the place the hunter left.

“Is she…”

“Not yet,” she replied, sharp.

She was too aware that, if she didn’t do something soon, Clarke would die. The vampire had lost too much blood and, for some reason, the cut wasn’t healing. If only… 

An idea came to her mind, so stupid and reckless that Lexa shouldn’t even consider it. However, as she had been doing all night, she ignored the rational arguments. Finally, she knew what she needed to do.

“Wells,” she called the stunned vampire next to her. “I need you to take us to a safe place. Preferably some of your bunkers. Can you transport us at the same time?” When he didn’t answer, Lexa raised her head to look at his eyes. “Wells. Can you do it?”

“I can try,” he finally said. “But I’ve never gone with a human.”

At least one of them had some experience. “Don’t worry about that.” She turned to her back, where all Clarke’s friends were staring at her, even Monty, who was leaning into Harper. “Bellamy, Miller, stay here and help my warriors to capture the turned hunters. If you can, follow the mountain vampires to know where they are hiding, but don’t enter.” She didn’t wait for their complaints, it wasn’t the moment to be soft. “Who’s the fastest of all of you?”

Although nobody answered, all the eyes turned to Octavia. The girl was sitting on the ground with Lincoln in her arms. The hunter seemed to be unconscious and, for the silent tears on Octavia’s cheeks, she had knocked him out.

“Octavia, carry Lincoln with you to the bunker. Then, go for Abby and bring her to the bunker too. The rest of you, caught the other hunters and search for some way to restrain them, but don’t kill them. Maybe Abby can find a way to turn them back.”

The gang was remained frozen for a second until Octavia broke her paralysis. She shouted a direction and, holding Lincoln, she turned their bodies into smoke.

“Wells, hurry up,” Lexa reminded him.

The boy looked at her eyes. He saw whatever he needed to make a decision. Without breaking the eye contact, he cut the palm of his hands and placed one on Clarke’s neck and the other on Lexa’s arm, where she had forgotten she had a cut.

_Hold on a little more, Clarke,_ she thought before she felt the unpleasant sensation that her body was banishing. As always, she couldn’t keep track of the time or what was happening around her. When she opened her eyes, she was inside an unfamiliar room, positively, a bunker as she had asked. 

__Dizzy, she forced herself to move her hands away from Clarke’s neck. Ignoring Wells' questions, she grabbed the same knife Clarke had used to hurt herself and stabbed her left wrist. The pain awakened her a little, hopefully enough to maintain her eyes open for the next minutes._ _

__With her body aching because of the fight and lack of sleep, she extended her hand as much as she could to Clarke’s face. Although the vampire had been all this time unconscious, with the smell of the blood, she opened her mouth and bit Lexa’s wrist._ _

__If some of her ambassadors looked at her at that moment, giving voluntary her blood to a vampire, they’d vote to remover her from the commander position. Lexa closed her eyes, ashamed of how little she cared._ _

__The way Clarke sucked her blood was more violent than the other occasions and Lexa’s instincts were screaming for her to move away. But she didn’t, not even when a couple of figures appeared in the room._ _

__“What's happening?” Abby demanded, angry and worried._ _

__Lexa made an effort to open her eyes. When she did it, she realized that at some point she had ended resting her head on Clarke’s chest, and she was too exhausted to change it.__

____

____

__While Lexa tried to maintain her eyes open, Wells explained what had happened to Abby and Marcus, who had come with her. He was interrupted when Monty and Harper appeared, followed by Monroe. Exactly what Lexa needed, more public._ _

__The next interruption was caused by Clarke. Suddenly, she stopped bitting Lexa’s wrist and opened her eyes, gasping. She only regained her consciousness for some seconds, but she looked down and the hunter saw that the blue was back on her eyes._ _

___She’s going to be fine,_ Lexa realized. She couldn’t say the same about her, though. She was bleeding out in the middle of a room full of vampires and no hunter knew where she was. With no energy to fight, she closed her eyes again. Before she lost consciousness, she caught Clarke’s irregular and almost inexistent but normal heartbeat._ _

____

✠ ✠

Clarke woke up slowly, so exhausted that she didn’t open her eyes. She had had a weird dream where she was imprisoned and turned into a bloody monster. She had an uneasy feeling about that dream; however, now, in the comfort of her bed, it seemed only a nightmare.

She spent the next minutes without doing anything, just laying on her back while she awakened a little more. She was so sleepy that she didn’t realize the other presence in the bed. Opening one eye, Clarke turned to her side. There, also laying on her side, Lexa was profoundly asleep. There was no way that Lexa would share her bed in the bunker, so it meant that this was also a dream.

_At least I’m going to enjoy it_ , Clarke thought while she pulled Lexa into her embrace, closing her eye again and smiling.

“Clarke?” Abby’s voice broke into her dream, inopportune as only a mother could be. “Sweety, are you awake?”

She tried to say no, but her throat was sore and she only managed to grumble.

“Clarke,” Abby repeated, this time with more urgency.

Ignoring her, Clarke tightened her grip on Lexa. It was unfair having a chance to cuddle with Lexa just to be ruined by her mother some seconds later. And Lexa was so comfy, the smell of her blood so tasty… Clarke’s eyes cracked open, the taste of Lexa’s blood on her mouth. None of that was a dream.

She sat up on her bed abruptly and completely awake. All her memories came along with a light headache. She had broken into a forest with Lincoln where Lexa was bleeding. Cutting her own neck had been her last desperate attempt to stopped herself before she could lose control and hurt Lexa. Yet, somehow, the hunter had found a way to save Clarke hurting herself.

Now, Lexa was deeply asleep. She could seem in peace if it weren’t for her unusual paleness and the heavy bags under her eyes. She looked younger than she was. And vulnerable.

Unaware of her thoughts and pain, Abby sat down on the bed. Her mother instincts pulled her to hug Clarke before she acted as the doctor she also was. “Honey, I need to make a quick exam.”

Well, that was going to wait. Clarke released herself from the embrace of her mother and jumped out of the bed. Besides the headache and the pain in her neck, she felt better than ever. Nobody could believe that some hours ago her body didn’t answer as always. Because it was only some hours… right?

With a bad feeling, she grabbed one of her notebooks and a pencil. She came back to the bed where Abby was staring at her, following all her movements. Since talking wasn’t an option for the moment, Clarke started writing in the notebook. When she finished writing “What time is it?”, she showed the page to her mother.

“Eleven, you have been sleeping for nine hours.”

Clarke's eyes widened. That was bad, very bad. Lexa shouldn’t be there. Clarke started writing again, anxious. “Tell me everything.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “But meanwhile, I’m going to test your reflexes and make another proves.”

For the next thirty minutes, Abby explained, as Clarke feared, that Lexa had given her blood, saving her life. Because of the amount of blood she had lost, it wasn’t surprising that Lexa was still unconscious. Unlike Clarke, the rest of the reapers didn’t have such luck. They were in a dungeon, watched both by vampires and hunters.

However, right now those hunters weren’t the main problem; it was Lexa’s absence. Nobody but they knew where the commander was. And, as the hours passed, the tension was growing.

“We can’t say that she’s recovering after giving you her blood,” Abby said, uncomfortable. “Not until she’s awake and can say it was her choice. We had tried to wake her up, but she has lost too much blood. And I don’t know barely anything about the natblidas, so I don’t know if she can receive a blood transfusion.”

Clarke nodded, biting her lip. For once, she was glad for Abby’s costume of hiding the truth. Lexa had been right about the threat of another group of vampires, maybe she was right too about the traitor. And if the traitor was one of her ambassadors and they found how Lexa had saved her life… Clarke shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She needed to do something soon.

Meanwhile, Abby continued talking, though it seemed like she was talking to herself. “It’s hard to believe that you received the same substance as the hunters. I don’t know if you were affected differently for being a vampire or thanks to Lexa’s blood, but you seem to be… completely fine.” She raised her head, looking back at her again. “Do you have the urge of attacking me or Lexa?”

“No,” she groaned. Her voice sounded more like a growl than a human voice, but it was an improvement.

Abby nodded with a soft smile. “It seems that your cut is healing faster now that you’re awake,” she muttered, again more to herself than to her daughter.

Clarke shrugged. Right now, her voice was the last of her worries. She took her notebook to write the next questions. “How’s everybody? Do you know anything about Jasper? And the vampires who kidnapped me? Did you take the syringes I had in my pocket?”

“I only find one syringe, I suppose the rest felt at some point, and it was broken. About your friends, they are okay, only Monty and Miller had some light wounds. The only mortal victims were three of the vampires who kidnapped you.” She pursed her lips, going back to her mother's mod. “Wells explained to me your ‘research’. That was dangerous and reckless, it could have ended worse.”

Ignoring her complaint, Clarke pointed with her finger Jasper’s name. She couldn’t think properly when she ran away from the lab, but now she felt the regret of leaving behind her friend. If Cage was honest, he didn’t plan to kill Jasper, but he didn’t explain what he wanted to do with him.

“Sorry, we don’t know anything about him. Bellamy found an entrance near where you fight. It’s closed, though. Oh, and Miller captured one of them,” she added. “He hadn’t spoken yet.”

Clarke nodded. “Thanggs,” she growled. She wanted to apologize too, but she didn’t trust her voice.

Now that she knew more about their situation, she was even more aware that they needed Lexa although what she needed was sleep. Once again, Clarke had to put everybody else above Lexa’s necessities.

Without giving an explanation to her mother, who looked confused, Clarke climbed into the bed next to Lexa. She felt like an intruder seeing Lexa sleep although it was her bed. Someone, maybe Abby, had removed her jacket and boots and, when Clarke leaned down, she noticed the bandage on her left wrist. 

“It was Wells' idea putting you two together,” Abby muttered behind her, awkwardly. “I did my best to heal her wounds, but the cut on her wrist was too deep and I could only stop the bleeding. However, it was… distracting and we needed that nobody attacked her.”

Clarke didn’t understand why putting the two together would stop the others, but she was glad they did it. Later, she’d thanks Wells.

Looking at the bandage, Clarke bit her own wrist. Since she became a vampire, her blood was darker than humans; however, it had never been so dark. It was almost black like Lexa’s. Clarke didn’t know if there would be consequences in the long run and she didn’t care at the moment.

After sucking some of her blood, she leaned down and pressed their lips together, giving Lexa part of the same blood she had given her before. It seemed they were trapped in a circle.

“Hum… Clarke?” Abby called her. “If you wanted to give her back some blood, I have syringes, you know?”

Not for the first time since she woke up, Clarke ignored her comment. She moved her face away and cleaned with her thumb a couple of blood drops of Lexa’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wells ships Clexa and it’s his first supporter. And I love too much writing “only one bed” that I couldn’t stop myself XD


	9. The betrayed queen

The first thing Lexa noticed when she woke up was that she was in an unfamiliar place. Although her instincts pushed her to open her eyes to see where she was, she pretended to be asleep until she had more information. Her plan, however, fell to the ground two seconds later when she listened to Abby’s voice saying Clarke’s name.

With her eyes completely open, Lexa sat up so abruptly that her body protested. Her movement caught Abby by surprise, but not Clarke. The vampire that was sitting beside her, moved closer, placing her arm protectively around Lexa’s waist. The hunter, feeling a bit dizzy, didn’t complain.

After checking that the three of them were alone in a bedroom, probably Clarke’s because of the drawing that filled the walls, Lexa fixed her attention on her friend. Besides the bandage on Clarke’s neck, she looked fine. Her eyes were back to normal and she was even smiling.

“Are you okay?” She asked, unable to hide all the concerns of her voice.

Nodding, Clarke raised her hand with her thumb up. Lexa didn’t miss that Clarke hasn’t used her voice, but she decided against pressing that subject. Instead, she turned her head toward Abby, who was staring at them uncomfortably. “Please, can you explain what happened?”

Lexa was ready to receive some complaints from the woman since the two of them never had had a good relationship. However, unusually polite, Abby took her time to explain everything since the moment Lexa passed out and answered her questions.

During that time, Lexa pretended that she was okay even though she was leaning into Clarke way more than she wanted. It was out of her control, though. Sleeping almost ten hours straight should have helped her to feel better, but she was still tired and a little weak. Luckily, the only one who could notice it was Clarke.

After Abby finished, Lexa closed her eyes. It was too much information to process and she needed to make some quick decisions. First of all, she needed to find an explanation of where she has been for ten hours she was missing. And saying that was sleeping in Clarke’s bed wasn’t the brightest idea.

“Mom,” Clarke’s cracked voice broke Lexa’s line of thought.

The blonde raised her notebook where she had written: “Could you bring us some breakfast, pleasy? Also, I think my friends would like to know we’re fine :)”

There’s no way that Abby missed Clarke’s real intentions of being alone with Lexa, but once again the woman surprised her, accepting with a simple nod. She didn’t look pleased, though.

“Okay, I’ll go to ask one of your friends. I’ll be back in a minute.”

However, when Abby opened the door to leave, various bodies felt inside the room as if they had been with their faces on the door. Abby snorted, upset but not surprised, while Clarke’s friends stood up. Wells was the fastest and also the first in arriving at the bed and wrapped both of them in an unexpected hug.

“I hate you, Clarke,” he muttered. Although his grip was firm, his arms were slightly shaking. “You two need to be more careful.”

Clarke groaned as protest, but Lexa didn’t say anything. In fact, she didn’t do anything, not even when the more vampires joined the hug. She felt overwhelmed, completely unprepared to receiving that kind of affection.

✠ ✠

If last night while she was trapped in the lab her future shelf would have traveled in time to tell her that some hours later she would be having breakfast on her bed next to Lexa and all her friends, she wouldn’t have believed her. But it was happening and Clarke didn’t have a single complaint. Maybe one since Octavia and Raven weren’t there. Or two, considering that she could barely talk. Or three, after all, they still had a lot to deal with. Okay, their situation might be far from ideal, but it felt so quotidian that she was enjoying it.

Lexa, however, didn’t share her wish of resting a little. If the hunter had agreed to remain in the bed and eat was because of her fatigue. Lexa could deceive the rest of the vampires, but Clarke didn’t buy her act and, behind Lexa’s calm façade, the hunter was restless and worried. Yeah, this scenario could be way better.

“Where is the vampire you captured?” Lexa asked.

Bellamy looked at Clarke, uncertain for some seconds, before answering. “He’s actually here. I didn’t know where to lock him and he ended in a cell we have upstairs. Marcus is watching him.”

Clarke crossed her arms over her chest, the memory of the lab too recent in her mind. Knowing that one of them was some meters away from them caused an unease feeling. To hid it, she took a sip of her glass of blood. Wells had bought it for her along with some food for Lexa. Since Wells was so attentive, the glass went with a straw. In other circumstances, Clarke would be eating too, but stabbing her own neck had more disadvantages than she had thought.

Although it was flesh blood and her favorite sanguine group, Clarke was having problems enjoying it as always. Yes, it was helping to accelerate the wound on her neck, so she should be okay. But it didn’t taste quite right because it wasn’t… Lexa’s blood. And that was a dangerous thought.

“The hunters know it?” Lexa asked, apparently unbothered by Bellamy’s answer, and luckily unaware of Clarke’s thoughts. 

“That we captured him? Yeah, Miller told it to Indra. What they don’t know is where he is, Abby decided that was better wait for a little.”

Since Clarke was sitting next to Lexa, looking at her closely, she saw the spark of Lexa’s eyes. Although her expression didn’t change, the vampire was sure that Lexa was in the process of making a plan.

For the next minutes, Lexa asked a few more questions while she ended her breakfast. Clarke was dying to know what she had in mind but decided against asking, at least while they weren’t alone. It didn’t mean that she was patient, thoughtful. She let the glass, now empty, on her bed, and grabbed her notebook to write: “Do you want to see the prisoner, right?”

Lexa nodded with a small smile on her face. She nodded again when she read Clarke’s next message: “I’m going with you.”

Monty, that had leaned down to read it, looked at her worried. “Clarke, are you sure?”

“She’s sure about what?” Bellamy asked, narrowing his eyes.

“We are going to see the prisoner,” Lexa replied.

They received a barrage of complaints and Clarke missed her voice to shout louder than them. When they argued, it was the best method to catch the attention. Lexa however, had a different approach. She waited, undaunted until the voices lowered their tone.

“Maybe Clarke can recognize him,” she explained, calm. “And seeing her recovery can stagger his confidence.”

Clarke nodded, satisfied with Lexa’s reasoning. If she could talk, she would say that she was going to go because she wanted, but Lexa made it sounded better.

To prove that she was okay, Clarke jumped out of her bed and, avoiding stepping on her friends, went to her wardrove. Her clothes were dirty, covered in mud and blood. Clarke doubted she could save them. Without any shame, she took off her t-shirt and started unbuttoning her pants.

“Fine! We understand the indirect,” Bellamy muttered, rolling his eyes while he stood up.

One by one, her friends left the room. Wells was the last and closed the door after sending her a look of ‘don’t mess things with Lexa.’

Clarke slid her pants away before turning to Lexa, only wearing her underwear, curious about seeing her reaction. The hunter’s eyes roaming her figure before she snapped and look at Clarke’s eyes, more embarrassed than her.

“Is this necessary?” She asked, doing an obvious effort to hold her eyes on Clarke’s face.

Maybe it wasn’t necessary, but Clarke didn’t regret it at all. It was worth just seeing Lexa’s blush. At that moment, Lexa seemed a normal girl and not the dangerous hunter she was.

Not wanting to make Lexa too uncomfortable, Clarke turned and got dressed. When she was ready, she returned to the bed carrying a clean t-shirt and a jacket, both black. She gave them to Lexa. When the hunter looked at her confused, she pointed her arm, where the sleeve was broken and had some blood drops.

“Oh. Hum… Thanks, Clarke.”

Lexa continued adorably blushed, luckily, Clarke’s voice failed her and she couldn’t say it out loud. Suddenly, changing in front of her, while Lexa was on her bed after sleeping together, didn’t seem so good idea.

Grateful that vampires didn’t blush so much, Clarke squeezed Lexa’s shoulder before leaving the room. She hesitated and stopped in the frame of the door. There were a lot of things she liked to say but she shouldn’t and couldn’t. However, what she really missed was say _thank you._

✠ ✠

The cell allowed them to see from the outside through a window without being seen. It was small and only had two chairs, the vampire unchained in one of them with heavy silver chains. Although all vampires were pale, this was extremely pale as if he hasn’t been far from the sun for years.

Inside the cell, Markus was talking with the prisoner, who seemed to make a good job ignoring him. Instead of listening to whatever Marcus was saying, Lexa turned toward Clarke when she noticed the tension on her body.

“Everything is okay?” She asked, suddenly worried that Clarke’s friends were right.

Clarke nodded, narrowing her eyes. What Lexa had at first read as fear, was actually hate. The blonde wasn’t afraid of the prisoner but extremely furious. Lexa could see in the way she gritted her teeth and started writing in her notebook, so violently that she almost broke the page in two.

“His name is Emerson,” Lexa read out loud, leaning over Clarke’s shoulder. “He’s a guard or something similar. He was with Cage and locked me in a fucking cage.”

She already knew it, but reading again that Clarke had been imprisoned and drugged in a cage filled Lexa with fury. Instead of opening the door to smack Emerson’s face as she wished, she placed her hand on Clarke’s upper arm, gently squeezing it. “Then… He would recognize you, right?” She asked.

The vampire didn’t hesitate before nodding.

“That’s interesting,” Lexa muttered, analyzing the new information. “Clarke, I think Emerson shouldn’t see you yet.” Lexa understood Clarke’s silent ‘why?’ for the way the vampire raised an eyebrow, so she started her explanation, while she put her ideas in order. “If he knows you, then he should know you were drugged. How would he react seeing you all right? I’m not sure yet and it can be an advantage for the future.”

This time, Clarke hesitated some seconds before nodding. She wrote on a new page of the notebook all the information she remembered although she had already written it earlier. Lexa didn’t complain, though.

With Clarke out of sight, Lexa opened the door of the cell. In Marcus' defense, the man didn’t look surprised at seeing her. Emmerson, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes as if he had recognized her.

“Can you leave us alone?” Lexa asked Marcus without averting her gaze from the prisoner.

“Of course, I’ll be outside.” _Ready to enter if something goes wrong_ was implicit.

Lexa nodded, sitting on the empty chair. She waited until the door was closed before talking. “I suppose you know who I am.” She didn’t receive any reply, so she continued. “You aren’t the talkative type, right? At least you could introduce yourself, Emerson.

This time, she did cause a reaction. The man’s eyes widened by the surprise and a bit of fear he wasn’t able to hide. Lexa, however, maintained her neutral expression. She had arrived at the most difficult part and she needed to play her cards carefully.

“I only have a question to you,” she lied, leaning toward him. “If you wanted to make an alliance with hunters, why didn’t you contact me?”

He gasped and lost the little color of his face he had left. “How…?” He whispered, finally breaking his silence.

“I’m the commander, Emerson,” she replied as if it was enough to answer. “You shouldn’t be so surprised.”

“You…” He groaned. Now that he had talked once, he seemed unable to keep his silence anymore. “Don’t play with me, you could never betray your friends from the ark.” He pronounced the last word with disgust, almost hate.

That was strange. If he hated so much the ark, why did they kidnap hunters and not vampires? And what was exactly the deal? The lack of information was frustrating and Lexa needed desperately to know more.

“And how did you know that? You didn’t even try to contact me and, instead, you choose someone as untrustworthy as Nia Queen,” she said, selecting the words carefully.

It seemed impossible, but the man became even paler. He didn’t need to say anything, his expression was enough evidence that Lexa had been right all this time about Nia.

They stared in silence for a few moments, now Emmerson studying her with new interest and respect. And, apparently, determined to keep his mouth shut.

“Maybe it’s not too late, Emerson.” Lexa stood up, looking intensely at the vampire like Titus taught her. “I’ll come back tomorrow. I hope we can have a civil conversation.”

Outside the cell, Marcus and Clarke were waiting for her, the man clearly impressed. “So Nia Queen…” He muttered to himself. “How did you know?”

She shrugged with false indifference as if she hadn’t been weeks analyzing all the possibilities. “She’s the only ambassador who hates all of you enough to make a deal with a group of vampires.”

Nia’s hate for the ark was deep, an open wound that had been bleeding for years until made her unrecognizable from the woman Lexa’s had once called Aunt Nia although she wasn’t her family.

Marcus leaned into the wall, frowning. “Why she hates us so much?”

“A group of vampires led by Pyke attacked her and her family. They killed her husband and her four years old daughter.” Lexa ignored the afflicted expressions of the two vampires. She continued as if it wasn’t more personal than it seemed. “Some years later her best friend was killed by another vampire. So, when I became the commander, she expected that I’d keep fighting. She’d never accepted the alliance.”

If she thought about Nia’s perspective, the woman was probably thinking that she had the right to betray Lexa. After all, in some way, Lexa had betrayed her first.

Lexa sighed. It hurt so much thinking about the past, those peaceful days that were long gone. But no matter how much it hurt, ignoring Nia’s hate had been her biggest mistake. She had lost Costia and Lincoln was a reaper. Her friends were in danger and she couldn’t lose anyone else.

In front of her, Marcus was lost in his thoughts, but Clarke was looking at her with worry. Definitely, Lexa refused to lose anyone else.

She was going to take Nia’s down.


	10. Rumor has it

Clarke and Lexa went downstairs in silence, letting Marcus alone to guard the cell. Lexa had a lot to think after talking with Emerson and Clarke’s piercing eyes on her weren’t helping. Clearly, the vampire wanted to talk, but Lexa knew it would be a bad idea. After all, her plan consisted of playing a bit more Nia’s game and that meant putting her life at risk. So, instead, Lexa stood in complete silence and Clarke didn’t break it.

When Clarke opened the door of the living room, Lexa thought by a moment she was hearing Anya’s voice, but that was impossible. Her friend was outside the city and there wasn’t any way that Anya could contact a vampire.

Just as they entered, Monty ran toward them carrying a laptop in his arms. On the screen, Anya and Raven were staring at her, one angry and the other smirking. Obviously, Anya was the angry one.

“Lexa!” She shouted. “Why haven’t you contact me?”

Lexa blinked, taken back. “Anya? How…?”

“It’s all thanks to me,” Raven pointed, proud, placing her arm around Anya’s shoulders, who answered hissing and pulling her away. “While you were discovering another group of vampires that kidnap and make experiments with hunters, I accomplished my job and I found Anya.”

“Found me? I found you since you didn’t stop following me around.”

“Nonsense. Anyway, this line is private and nobody can hack it, so we can talk freely.”

That made sense, Anya wouldn’t agree to make a video call if she was afraid that someone could hack it. Hunters and technology weren’t in general good friends, so they usually avoided it.

“Anya,” Lexa called her before her friend could continue arguing with Raven. “Have you accomplished your mission?”

Anya’s face darkened. “Almost.”

“Then, continue.”

“But Lincoln-”

“No buts.” Lexa’s tone hardened. She hated acting like that with Anya, but they weren’t alone. Besides Clarke and Raven, Monty was still there holding the laptop and the rest of Clarke’s friends were sitting on different couches. Lexa had already shown enough weakness, she needed to remind them she was the commander. “Continue with your mission, I need that information. And right now, neither you nor I can help Lincoln, he’s in the hands of our doctors.”

What she didn’t say was that she wanted Anya far from her. As much as she desired to have her friend on her side, it was safer for her to be away. She couldn’t lose anyone else.

Anya furrowed her scowl, upset with the decision, but loyal after all. “Okay,” she agreed. However, her eyes said that this wasn’t over. Lincoln was her best friend, it was a miracle she hadn’t run back to the city after hearing about Lincoln’s situation, also the reason why Lexa didn’t want to tell her until she didn’t have more information about reapers. 

“Perfect,” Raven smirked, annoyingly proud. “Since I did my job, I’ll come back.”

Clarke took a step closer to the laptop and shook her head. “Stay,” she groaned. Since the first time Lexa had heard her, her voice was more understandable, but it was still far from her tone. “Help Anya. Please,” she added.

“No fucking way!”

“I don’t need her help!”

Ignoring their protests, Clarke took the laptop from Monty’s hands and moved it closer to her face. Then, she pouted with the cutest expression Lexa had ever seen.

“No!! Your cute face no!” Raven closed her eyes. “That’s unfair! Agh. Alright!” She gave up. “I’ll stay with miss sympathy.”

“You didn’t even last a minute,” Anya protested, indifferent to Clarke’s cuteness. “And I refuse to be with you.”

“Anya, it will be faster,” Lexa admitted, signing. Once again, she didn’t comment that Anya would be safer with some company, even if that company was Raven. She had felt bad for sending Anya alone, now at least she could have some help.

Anya looked ready to kill Raven and her eyes were shining with fury, but she nodded. Now they only needed to not kill the other.

Inspired by Clarke’s idea, Lexa moved closer to the laptop. “Raven, can you hack someone’s computer since your location?”

On the screen, the vampire raised an eyebrow, interested. Clarke had talked enough about her friends to know that Raven loved doing illegal activities.

“Who do you think I am? I’m Raven, the greatest genius. Of course I can!”

Lexa nodded, hesitating. She didn’t trust Raven and asking her something meant that all the gang will know about Nia’s betrayal. But, as much as Lexa hated relying on other people, she needed evidence.

“Could you enter in Nia’s computer and find some evidence that she was in contact with the mountain vampires?”

She could hear some whispers in the room, but her eyes were fixed on Raven. Unlike Anya, who was scowling, Raven’s eyes were sparkling with joy.

“Humm, that sounds funny. But I think that, in this case, it would be better looking inside her mobile,” she muttered, happily, to herself. “Yes, I can do it, but I want something in exchange.”

Anya opened her mouth to protest and Clarke tensed, tightened her grip on the computer. Lexa, however, nodded.

“What do you want?” She asked, genuinely curious, though she masked her curiosity. Like the informatic skills and the ability to blow everything, Lexa also knew the animosity that Raven carried against her after Finn’s death. Although Raven seemed to be in a good mood, Lexa didn’t trust her.

The vampire thought for a moment while Anya protested that she couldn’t demand something from Lexa. When Raven took a decision, her smile turned into a grin, showing her white and sharky teeth.

“I want that you ask me saying ‘please, Raven, greatest genius, help me.’”

Lexa shrugged, ignoring Anya’s discomfort and the astonished looks of Clarke’s friends. Of everything that Raven could have asked, that was easy. “Please, Raven, greatest genius, help me,” she said, emotionless.

Although it was what Raven had demanded, the vampire’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Wow, I never thought the commander could be so cute. Now I understand why Clarke has such crush on you.”

“Raven!!” Shouted Anya and Clarke at the same time.

The two blondes were ready to punch Raven, but only Anya had the chance to slap her. Clarke resigned to end the call with a grunt and close the laptop screen with fury, shutting down Raven’s voice saying that she was joking. Clarke was slightly blushed what, coming from a vampire, was a lot.

“Hum.” Lexa cleared her throat, aware that the gang was staring at the two of them. “Can we continue?” _And pretend this didn’t happen,_ she thought.

✠ ✠

As Lexa entered the bar, Clarke’s protests came to her mind. The vampire hadn’t been delighted with the idea of Lexa going alone, but the vampires were weaker in the mornings and could only spend some hours under the sun before dying. Even protected by sunscreen and an umbrella, most vampires preferred not to risk their lives. Of course, Clarke wasn’t one of them.

Arguing with Clarke had been exhausted, but at least Lexa had managed to go on her own. As much as she would appreciate Clarke’s company, she couldn’t put her friend in danger. Luckily, Abby would watch her daughter.

Although the bar wasn’t very crowded, Lexa needed some seconds to find Roan. The man knew how to be unnoticed although his physical appearance. It was incredible considering the scars on his face and having the body type of a wardrobe.

Surprised of seeing him alone, Lexa walked toward his table, near the bathrooms and kitchen. It couldn’t be a coincidence that he was there, close to a possible exit and the perfect place to hide. If Lexa had come with more people, she’d have sent someone to check the bathrooms, but she was alone, so she only could hope that it wasn’t a trap and be prepared in case it was.

Roan greeted her lifting his bear while Lexa took a sit in front of him. At first, both stood in silence, looking for the other visible weapons. For an untrained eye, they seemed normal civilians, but being a hunter meant to learn how to detect weapons. Lexa counted two knives, one in each sleeve. Who knew how many more were on his trousers and belt.

Lexa crossed her arms over her chest, a bit uncomfortable without her usual clothes. Between the blood and the cut on her arm, her t-shirt and jacked were ruined, so now she was wearing Clarke’s clothes. Luckily, they had similar tastes and height, so it was difficult to notice they weren’t hers. However, a vampire could easily recognize Clarke’s scent. And that wasn’t a possibility that Lexa liked.

Before she could get lost on that train of thoughts, Lexa cleared her throat and fixed her eyes on Roan. “Thanks for coming.”

He shrugged, pretending indifference. “I couldn’t miss this chance. There are some curious rumors about your disappearance.”

“I can imagine. There are some rumors about your mother too.”

“You called me so I can explain my mother’s evil plans?” he asked, raising an eyebrow with the word evil.

Although the answer was yeas, Lexa shook her head. Roan and Nia’s conflicted relationship was a loud secret. They hated each other, but Roan always did all her mother’s requests. Some people believed that their hate was fake, just a trick so Nia’s enemies would try to contact Roan. Lexa, however, knew that the hate was real, but also that Roan wouldn’t betray Nia as long as she protected him from all the enemies he had.

As much as Lexa despite it, she and Roan had more in common than it seemed at first sign. The difference was that Lexa had banished her father while Roan still stuck with her mother.

“Would you tell me if I ask?” She continued when he shook his face. “What I expected. No, that’s not my reason to be here. Anyway, I already know that Nia has something planned for the moment I step inside the fort.”

She didn’t have proof, nor doubts.

“If you already know it, why are you here?”

“I want to offer something.” She placed her elbows on the table, careful to not show the bandages on her wrist, and leaned down. “The possibility to turn your back to Nia.”

Roan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. He took a sip of his beer, before lowering his jag. “I have lost count of all the times I heard this phrase, why do you think you can accomplish what others failed?”

“For a start, I’m the commander, I had more power than your mother.” Even if sometimes it seemed to be the other way around. “Secondly, I’m going to take her down. I wouldn’t want to be on her side when that happens.”

Her words fell into the table like a death sentence. Although Roan wanted to hide it, she could sense his fear. The question was if he was more afraid of her or Nia.

“It’s a bit reckless being so honest,” he said after some tensed seconds. His hands were holding the jar so tight that his knuckles were almost white. “I can easily walk away and fill Nia with this information.”

She shrugged, unconcerned. “Nia is smart, at this point she had probably deduced it. Besides, she’s been orchestrating my death for the last years, it’s only fair if I do the same, don’t you think?” Roan didn’t deny it and, even if he did it, she wouldn’t believe him. “I’ll be honest with you,” she lowered her voice, but she was sure he would understand her. “I made the mistake of allowed such freedom to Nia knowing that she would betray me someday. And that day had arrived. Nia crossed the line I can forgive.”

Though she remained calm, she filled her words with a small part of the fury she had. Costia didn’t deserve dying to hurt her, betrayed by her supposed allies. She didn’t deserve that the last image Lexa had of her was her lifeless head in a pool of blood.

Costia shouldn’t have died that way, alone and in pain, without the possibility of saying goodbye.

In front of Lexa, Roan was pale but refused to avert his gaze. Although the mutual despite between Lexa and Nia, she had never openly threatened her. And everybody knew the fate of the enemies of the commander.

“There’s no need to seem surprised,” Lexa continued, hiding her fury again. “You came here alone because you wanted to hear what I would offer. Now you know; I’m going to destroy her. But, when the moment comes, who would you choose?”

Lexa stood up with her eyes still fixed on Roan. The cards were on the table, now he had to decide. Although Lexa didn’t have enough evidence to position all the ambassador against Nia, she was honest when she said that she will finish her. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but she’ll do it.

Just when Lexa was turning around, Roan’s voice made her turn back. “Why?”

She raised an eyebrow as an answer, not quite sure of the question. Roan closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he looked more tired and old. 

“Why are you giving me this chance?”

Lexa maintained her face expressionless though deep down that question hurt her. She remembered herself asking the same question to Costia more than once and how her friend smiled, giving an answer that Lexa couldn’t understand the first time.

“Costia believed in you,” she said, unable to bring back Costia’s arguments and faith.

If Lexa weren’t already sure that Nia had orchestrated Costia’s death, she would be sure now seeing the pain and guilty on Roan’s eyes. He had been Costia’s friend. In other circumstances, in a world without Nia, he could have been Lexa’s friend too.

✠ ✠

In compensation for not allowing her to go with Lexa, Clarke convinced her mother to visit Lincoln and the rest of the reapers that were in the hunter’s hospital. Abby had refused at the beginning until the point where Marcus and Wells had interfered in Clarke’s favor. Although she was hurt, she didn’t need to be locked inside the bunker.

That was how mother and daughter went together with Bellamy, who was worried about her sister, and Wells. Since Clarke couldn’t speak yet, having her best friend talking for her was the less bad scenario. Maybe nobody would notice that she was quieter than usual. Everything would be easier if she could be honest and admit what happened, but that would put both of them into a precarious situation.

Despite Clarke’s initial excitement for stepping outside the bunker, her smile disappeared the moment she saw the cells where the reapers were. It should be excessive, even cruel, to lock someone there, but those humans didn’t act like humans. All of them except two, that were sleeping, were hitting the bars, some of them until the point of bruising their knuckles.

While Abby went to talk with Jackson and a woman that was probably the head of the hunters’ doctors, Clarke and Wells observed everything in a discrete corner. It was terrifying knowing that she could have been in one of those cells. And, even though she was free, Lincoln didn’t share the same luck. The hunter, always soft and caring, was hitting the bars like the others, completely unaware of Octavia’s presence in front of him.

 _They need to find a cure,_ she thought. Abby wouldn’t like it, but Clarke refused to hide the solution if that was the prize.

Clarke only needed to share a look with Wells to make her friend understand her intentions. He nodded, his eyes going back to the reapers.

“Who?” He asked, so low that even Clarke had problems hearing.

She didn’t trust her voice to be so quiet, so she took her notebook. “Indra,” she wrote.

As she expected, it was easy to find the hunter. Indra’s squad was who captured the other hunters and, at least Lincoln was part of her unit. And knowing how loyal she was, there wasn’t any way that she wouldn’t be near there.

For the next minutes, Clarke and Wells waited for Indra to be alone. Between doctors and guards, the building was pretty crowded. However, the woman ended walking alone toward some stairs. The two vampires waited again to not be so obvious before following her.

Indra led them to an empty room upstairs, where she stood on her feet with her back straight. She looked murderous, but her hands were far from her knives. That was a good start.

“Where is Lexa?” She asked after Wells closed the door.

While the boy stood near the door to watch, Clarke stepped closer. “Safe,” she groaned. Her voice sounded better, but Indra raised an eyebrow, obviously aware.

“Where?” She repeated.

“If Lexa hasn’t told you, I won’t.” Saying one word after the last shouldn’t be so hard, but it was. However, she refused to write messages with Indra.

Luckily, the woman didn’t insist again, so Clarke wouldn’t have to repeat herself. She didn’t look happy with her answer, though.

“Artigas told everything that happened last night.” She put a special emphasis on _everything,_ making obvious she knew Clarke’s transformation without saying it. “How?”

It was an open question, but Clarke knew what she was referring to. The vampire gulped, feeling her throat sore and not only because of the cut.

“Natblida’s blood,” she said, unable to mention Lexa’s name.

Indra, though, immediately caught the implication of her words. Her brow furrowed so deep that her eyes were a thin line, her jaw clenched hard. 

Sighing, Clarke grabbed her notebook. As much as she didn’t want to use it, Indra needed to know the whole picture and, since Wells was guarding the room and making a full phrase seemed an impossible mission, the notebook was her only choice.

“I lost a lot of blood and Lexa gave me part of hers. Only a few vampires know it, but Lexa doesn’t want to be public knowledge. However, maybe the natblida’s blood is the key to cure your companions.”

In silence, Indra grabbed her notebook and ripped off the page. She took a lighter from her pocket and burn the paper, turning it into ashes.

✠ ✠

Clarke and Wells returned to the bunker alone. Although Abby’s best wishes, they needed her medical experience there and Bellamy wanted to be with her sister. Clarke was grateful that Bell stayed; Octavia was completely broken. Before leaving, she had looked at Clarke with real desperation as if she was waiting for Clarke to do a miracle.

Lexa was back in the bunker when they arrived. Surprisingly, she was in the living room with a laptop on her knees and Monty next to her. Maybe it was how good Lexa fit there or the way the hunter waded her with a smile, but Clarke kicked her boots away and sat down on the couch beside her although there was more space in Monty’s side.

With the excuse of seeing better the screen, she placed her head on Lexa’s shoulder and tugged so close she almost ended on her lap. Instead of pulling her away, Lexa wrapped her arm discreetly around her waist, giving her permission for being so close without words. 

“Hey, Clarky!” Raven exclaimed at the other side of the screen, smirking and with the spark in her eyes she always had when she was doing something illegal. “Good to see you again.”

Clarke shrugged, but wadded her hand and tried to put a smile on her face. Her face should seem miserable because Monty turned to her. Without Jasper on his side to joke and make all the questions, Monty looked more serious than usual.

“How was it?” He asked.

“Bad,” Wells answered. Unlike Clarke, he had taken off his shoes in his room. He had probably gone to the kitchen too because he offered to Clarke a glass of blood that she couldn’t refuse. Abby’s orders. “The doctors can’t find a cure yet. We…” He hesitated, looking for Clarke’s eyes before continuing. “We told Indra the truth.”

Lexa tensed for a second, but Clarke couldn’t see her face. To her surprise, when the hunter talked, her voice didn’t sound mad. “Okay. I was already thinking of asking Aden to go, but now that Indra knows it, she can pretend to have the idea of using our blood for some tests after seeing Aden.”

“Hum, I like it,” Raven nodded before grabbing her phone.

After so many years, Clarke knew her friend too well. “Raven,” she warned after gulping from her blood glass to clear her throat.

In Raven’s defense, she looked a bit guilty. “Sorry, too late, I’d already sent him a message.”

“How…” Lexa trailed, not so familiar with Raven’s attitude as the rest. “How do you have his number?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer.” She raised her eyes to the mobile, her smirking growing wider. “Hum, the kid is fast, but he’s not trusting me.”

Neither of them said it out loud, but Clarke was sure that everyone had the same thought: _obviously._

While Lexa gave some tips to convince Aden that it was her message, Clarke closed her eyes. Seeing the hunters and walking under the sun had exhausted her more than she was willing to admit. So, she took shameless profit of the chance of being so close with Lexa.

She didn’t fall asleep, though. She just stood there, warmed, listening to her friend’s voices talking about the evidence against Nia and the meeting Lexa wanted to have with the Ark council to offer them a deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite being the longest chapter so far, I kept adding things that I had forgotten 😅


	11. Trust me

Of the three members of the Ark’s council, Lexa’s least favorite was without any doubt, Pyke. She liked Marcus and could deal with Abby, but Pyke sulfurated her until the point of wishing him death.

It had been hard according to make a meeting with the three of them and even harder convince Pyke to listen to her. It had only been possible thanks to Marcus’ conciliative attitude and the lack of Abby’s complaints. That had surprised Lexa. The doctor wasn’t a big fan of her and, although she wasn’t disrespectful like Pyke, she never agreed easily. This time, however, she had been in silence, staring at her with a strange look.

Because of Pyke’s disdainful questions, Lexa spent almost half-hour explaining her offer when she could have done it in fifteen minutes.

To nobody's surprise, Pyke huffed and shook his head. “There’s no way we’re going to accept.”

Lexa suppressed the urge of punching in the face. With a chair. Several times.

“Actually, it’s an interesting offer,” Marcus muttered. Although his eyes were fixed on Lexa, he wasn’t looking at her. “We should consider it.”

In other words, Marcus was in favor and Pyke against it, just like Lexa expected. The only doubt was Abby’s opinion, who would be the decisive vote. And this time Lexa didn’t have any clue of the woman’s decision.

“I’ll let you evaluate my proposal, but I need an answer within an hour.”

“Okay,” Marcus agreed.

“The answer will be no,” Pyke groaned at the same time.

After briefly smiling at Marcus, Lexa left the room as she had said. She felt Abby’s eyes bored her, even when she closed the door behind her.

Clarke and the guard were waiting for her in the hallway. The vampires were on the right, the hunters on the left, and Clarke in the middle, sitting on the floor although there were some chairs. In other meetings, besides the guard would be some of her ambassadors and Titus. This time, the guard was composed of Artigas and three hunters of Indra’s squad. That difference caused her an uneasy feeling. It was a reminder that she was acting on the back of her ambassadors and she’ll have to deal with them later.

Ignoring the doubts she couldn’t afford, she sat down next to Clarke, crossing her legs. The vampire, disregarding the space Lexa had put between them, leaned in, brushing their shoulders. 

“How was it?”

Lexa felt a sharp of guilty hearing her voice. Though better, it was obvious that Clarke still had problems talking, and it was because of the knife she used to stop herself from attacking Lexa.

Clarke almost died because of her.

Like Costia…

“Lexa?”

Clarke’s question brought her back to reality. Lexa blocked those thoughts, aware that she couldn’t ignore them forever.

“As I expected,” she answered, whispering so only Clarke could hear her. “Your mother was acting weird, though.” 

The vampire raised an eyebrow, but Lexa didn’t give her details. She wished they were alone, so she could speak freely, explained her impressions, asking her advice, hug her… Lexa wised a lot of things and she couldn’t have any of them. After all, right now what she missed the most was having Anya or Costia at her other side, listen to them ranting about Pyke.

In silence, Clarke moved a little so, when she grabbed Lexa’s hand, her body covered it. Lexa was too tired to listen to all the reasons why she shouldn’t allow it. Instead, she entangled their fingers together.

For the next minutes, Clarke’s hand was an anchor of her depressing thoughts. Lexa was fully aware that she was avoiding returning to the fort and her reasons to not contact her ambassadors were excuses. She couldn’t trust them and they were going to hate her even more if the Ark accepted her offer to have one ambassador. Of all the changes Lexa had made being the commander, giving that position could be the straw that broke the camel's back.

When the door of the meeting room was opened, Lexa released Clarke’s hand and got up. Pyke left the first, sending daggers in Lexa’s direction, before walking away in the guard direction. Markus was the next, and also who informed her with a smile that they had agreed. Abby stood behind him, still looking at her with that strange and unreadable expression.

“Lexa, can we have a word?” The doctor asked. “In private.”

Without waiting for an answer, the woman turned and entered the meeting room again. Hiding her confusion, Lexa gestured Artigas to inform him that it was okay, and waded Marcus and Clarke. Lexa closed the door and return to the big table in the middle of the room, only that this time neither of them sat down.

“As vampires, we are sterile,” Abby began, not looking at her. “We adopt orphans and raised them as if they were our children. Sometimes we have blood connection, other times are strangers. We give them the opportunity of turning them into vampires once they are eighteen or nineteen. That was the case or Clarke and her friends.”

Lexa nodded and bit back the curiosity of asking why Abby was telling her that. She already knew it, Clarke had explained the process some years ago, but she didn’t say anything.

“However,” she continued, her voiced turning colder. “Some centuries ago, that wasn’t the process. The vampires turned whatever they like, sometimes without consent, and didn’t establish that kind of bond. I didn’t know about the existence of vampires when my mentor turned me into one, but I was dying and he saved me, so I’ve never resentful him.”

Graceful, the woman sat on the edge of the table with a feline movement. She was still avoiding Lexa’s eyes. “The day after I was turned into a vampire, my mentor warned about the hunters. He said they were more than us, an unstoppable force that wanted to kill us for the mere fact of existing.”

Lexa shivered and shifted her weight from foot to foot. That part was familiar, only that in her case she had been warned against the cruel vampires. Although it was uncomfortable and a part of her didn’t want to know the rest, she continued in silence.

“In the end, he was right. We fought against other vampires and had our differences, but our real enemy were the hunters. My mentor was captured, they killed him with the ritual of the three hundred cuts.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

Although it wasn’t her fault, she knew that ritual. It wasn’t common anymore and most hunters rejected, but Lexa had witnessed one time when she was little and she couldn’t forget it. It was unnecessarily cruel and brutal, a punishment to the vampire and a spectacle.

“That’s what surprised me the most, you are really sorry.” Abby Finally turned her head and their eyes met. “The word had changed in the last centuries and the hunters had changed too. You are different. Marcus knows it, Pyke it’s afraid to see it and I had tried to ignore it. I guess we are too old.”

Lexa waited some seconds until it became clear that the woman wasn’t going to continue. “Why have you told me this?” She asked, quietly.

“Because I want you to understand. I thought I would never trust a hunter, but I’m going to trust you.” As fast as she had sat down, Abby stood up and took some steps to the door. “I don’t know your reasons, but you saved my daughter risking your life. And I can guarantee that I’ll never forget it.”

Abby’s last words hovered in Lexa’s head, more powerful than a promise.

✠ ✠

It wasn’t the first time Clarke went to the hunter’s fort, but she had never gone with such company. Lexa led the way, stoic and hiding her emotions under a mask of indifference. On her right, some steps behind her, Indra and most of her warriors followed her. They walked in silence, ready to enter a battle. On the left, the vampires didn’t share the same attitude and modals. They weren’t a homogeny group, they could never have been when Abby, Marcus, and Pyke walked together. They appeared relaxed, but it was obvious that their destination wasn’t a place they like. The rest of the vampires weren’t as good as them to hide the anxiety.

Clarke was on the side of the vampires as Abby expected her, although she would prefer being next to Lexa. In Clarke’s current position was painfully evident how lonely Lexa was, leading an improvised army of almost a hundred hunters and vampires.

They arrived at the fort without any accident. And, since the problem waited for them outside the big door of the fort, Clarke was relieved. At least the easy part had been easy.

Although her mother wanted her to have a low profile, Clarke couldn’t stop herself and moved closer to the door with Lexa, Indra, and the Ark council. Abby realized too late, Clarke couldn’t back out now without looking suspicious.

Clarke didn’t remember the names of the twelve hunters that were on the door, but she recognized them as Lexa’s ambassadors. What was interesting was their different expressions. Five of them seemed reluctant, one bored, two indifferent, and three were smirking. The other two were Titus and Nia. The bald man had his brow furrowed in concern and fury, while Nia had never had a bigger smile.

Titus was the first in stepping forward. With that movement, Clarke was able to see the warriors waiting behind the doors, ready to fight a battle. Hopefully, not against her commander. “Commander,” he muttered without his usual coldness, failing to fully mask his rage. “Where were you?”

“Collecting information. There’s a traitor in the ambassadors.” Her eyes were fixed on Nia as if it weren’t evident who was she referring to.

Her words caused some whispers between the ambassadors, but they didn’t affect Nia.

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with it. A commander who disappears and deals with our real enemy isn’t worthy to be our commander,” she proclaimed, putting a special emphasis on the word real. “I challenge you a combat to prove your value.”

Clarke gritted her teeth, aware that her intervention would only worsen Lexa’s situation. Although she trusted Lexa’s combat skills, she also knew that the hunter wasn’t in her best condition.

“I accept.” Lexa’s voice was controlled. She didn’t look surprised. “Who will be your champion, because I guess you won’t fight.”

Nia narrowed her eyes, but her smile didn’t flicker. If she was pissed because of Lexa’s comment, she hid it very well. “My son, Roan.”

✠ ✠

The vampire guests were meant to follow the hunter’s guard to the place where the combat will take place. Clarke should go with them and pretend she was alright. However, against every logic, she went to Lexa’s side. The hunter raised her hand, probably to inform the other hunters to let her get closer.

Without saying any word, Lexa walked inside the fort and Clarke followed her. They left the bustle of the entrance behind as they get in the deep of the fort. The vampire didn’t pay attention to her surroundings, her eyes were fixed on Lexa’s back, not in the hallway.

Five minutes later, after too many stairs to Clarke’s liking, Lexa opened a door and entered without looking if Clarke was still there. The vampire didn’t hesitate in following her. Although the urgency to talk with Lexa, Clarke stood in silence some seconds analyzing what she was sure was Lexa’s room.

The room was big, way bigger than Clarke’s room, but it felt empty, lonely. Besides some necessary items like the bed or the wardrobe, there were some bookshelves and a desk. The only personal stuff was some weapons on the wall and at least fifty candles spread out the room. Although the danger of the fire in a room with the furniture made of wood, it was probably a beautiful scenery being there reading with the light of the candles. However, now the candles weren’t burning and the only light came from the window, almost inexistent since it was night.

Clarke shook her head. She would think about her room later, now she needed to focus on the death threat. 

“Don’t”. Clarke struggled to talk, frustrated that the words didn’t come as she wanted. “Don’t do… it.”

“Clarke…” She whispered, soft and gentle, but not what Clarke needed to hear. “I have to do it.”

They stared at each other, both aware of the stubbornness of the other. Lexa turned her face first, moving toward her wardrobe.

“It’s a trap,” Clarke groaned. She ignored the pain in her throat. “And you are tired.”

Lexa turned back while she put on a black jacket, letting Clarke’s on the bed. Although the room was in darkness, Clarke could perfectly see her piercing eyes. Of course, Lexa knew it. Nia wouldn’t demand a combat if she weren’t sure of her victory. And the moral of the woman was barely inexistent.

“I know. But if I don’t agree, Nia will prove that I’m weak and not capable to be the commander. And I don’t have any reason to postpone it.”

But she did have one. Clarke gritted her teeth. She was the reason why Lexa wasn’t fine and the hunter wouldn’t use it to protect herself.

As if Lexa could read her mind, she stepped closer and placed her hand on Clarke’s upper arm. “I’ll be okay. I’ve sparred with Roan before, I know how he fights. And I have an ace up my sleeve, please, trust me. I can win.”

Clarke shook her head. She trusted her skills, but it wasn’t so easy. “We can find… an alternative.”

“Probably, but it would be too late.” With another step, Lexa moved even closer and raised her other hand to caress Clarke’s cheek with a gentleness she usually never showed. “I need you to promise me you won’t interfere. No matter what.”

If Lexa were about to die, could Clarke stay there? Definitely no. Clarke wasn’t going to make a promise she couldn’t maintain. “I can’t.”

“Please, trust me.”

There was something in Lexa’s tone that made it impossible to lie. It wouldn’t be the first time that Clarke did something against Lexa’s plans, but tonight wasn’t an option. The mere thought of doing something on her back sickened her. However, letting her alone wasn’t an option she liked.

Anxious, Clarke stepped back. Without averting her gaze, Lexa followed her until Clarke’s back hit the wall. The vampire couldn’t run away anymore and Lexa was still looking at her with an intensity Clarke wasn’t used to and, certainly, she couldn’t handle.

“Don’t interfere, Clarke. Please,” she repeated for the third time.

It was unfair that Lexa used that soft tone and her expression showed such resolution. It was unfair that Lexa was going to risk her life and she didn’t want any help.

Clarke opened her mouth to say again that she couldn’t promise it but, when she was about to say the first word, Lexa’s lips crashed against hers. Hit by the surprise, Clarke wasted two seconds without doing anything. When her brain finally realized that Lexa was kissing her, she gripped her shirt, pulling Lexa closer and kissing her back. Clarke wrapped her arms around Lexa's neck as the kiss deepened, Lexa’s body pressed against hers.

Lexa broke the kiss, heavily breathing. Although she was flustered, she remained in Clarke’s arms for some seconds while Clarke tried to understand what the hell had happened.

“I know that I don’t care about my life,” Lexa began. It should be impossible, but her voice was softer than before. “But I won’t die tonight. Trust me.”

And, with a sad smile, she pulled herself away, her fingers caressing Clarke’s cheek for the last time. Too stunned to react, Clarke remained frozen while the hunter grabbed two swords and left the room.


	12. The last chance

Titus was waiting for her on the armory and started scowling the moment he saw her, but Lexa ignored him. She couldn’t believe that she had kissed Clarke. What the hell was she thinking? And now, some minutes before the combat, she needed to erase it from her mind.

As Titus taught her years ago, Lexa closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling slowly until her heart stopped beating so fast. If she aimed for the victory, she needed to be concentrated and ignore the ache on her left wrist, the exhaustion of her body, and the pain of her heart. She was the commander, not Lexa. She had to be fine and ready.

When she opened her eyes again, she found Titus observing her in silence. The disappointment wrote over his face was worse than being stabbed, but for the last two years, Lexa had slowly learned to ignore it.

“Lexa, you are doing everything wrong,” he warmed with the tone that didn’t accept a no for an answer.

“I was left without another option.”

The ambassadors that didn’t consider her worthy, Nia’s treason, Titus’ aversion to the vampires… Lexa didn’t like this situation, but she had been pushed toward it. Now she had to carry on.

“You did have a choice. And it’s not too late yet to amend it.”

Lexa was about to fight a hunter just to prove her worth to the other hunters while, in the shadows, another hunter had been plotting against her life. However, Titus was persistent in reminding her that all the vampires were her enemies.

“Right now I have more urgent matters to deal with.”

Titus pursed his lips. “We’ll talk later.”

But you won’t like what I’m going to tell you, she thought. At this rate, she was going to lose Titus, it was the prize of deepening their alliance with the vampires.

Lexa scowled herself, upset for being distracted again. She wasn’t a kid looking for Titus’ validation anymore, his beliefs couldn’t control her actions. She knew it, but it didn’t make it easier.

Breath. She needed to breathe again, regain control of her heart and mind.

They left the armory walking together, not showing the separation between them. Roan was already there when they arrived at the arena. He was alone in the right corner, so lost in his thoughts that didn’t raise his head until the crowd shouted Lexa’s name. Stepping into the opposite corner, they exchanged a look.

The arena was a simple square on the floor, the space delimited with simple black lines. It was the same place that was used for training and tests, not prepared for this kind of show. There weren’t any chairs in the large courtyard, so the witnesses just stood on their foot, a clear division between vampires and hunters. Indra and her squad were in the middle, not a part of any group. And Lexa didn’t miss the ambassadors that had moved closer to her and the ones who were close to Nia.

Titus explained the rules that everybody knew. Step outside the square, lose consciousness, surrender, dying, or use any trick would immediately mean their defeat. All weapons were accepted besides poison. Nobody could intervene. There wasn’t any limit of time.

Clarke arrived before Titus ended his explanation. She stood near her friends, avoiding all the eyes that were on her and the silent questions. The vampire had only eyes on Lexa, a look so intense that the hunter could only stare some seconds before averting her gaze to focus on Roan.

The man was uncomfortable and tense, the hold on his sword tight. Like Lexa was avoiding Clarke, he seemed to be avoiding Nia. Maybe that meant something, but Lexa didn’t want to get her hopes up. She had shown her cards, now the decision was only his.

When Titus ended, the crow had duplicated. The vampires were now a small group, surrounded by at least three hundred hunters. However, for the moment it didn’t seem problematic. With the short life of most of the hunters, two years of peace was a long time and it was a rare occasion to see the commander fighting for her title, so most of the hunters preferred the spectacle than fighting with vampires. Lexa wished her companions would behave. If everything went right, in some way she was going to need them.

After a shout from Titus, Lexa unsheathed her sword. Although she was carrying two, she let the other one in the sheath. The cut on her wrist was deep, she needed to postpone using her left hand. In front of her, Roan did the same.

Since he had challenged her, he attacked first, cheered by a small part of the public. Lexa easily avoided his sword thrusts twice before attacking back.

As they continued, the cheers of the public decreased as it became obvious that neither of them was fighting seriously. Their movements were beautiful, the work of years of training, but not real combat. Nia wanted a spectacle of Lexa’s fall, so Lexa was giving her a spectacle, but maybe not what she wanted.

Roan needed ten minutes of blocking and evading to lose his temper. “What are you doing?” He hissed, so low that nobody else could hear him

“Giving you time,” she whispered, blocking his sword and staying in his personal space. “I gave you a choice, now I’m waiting for your answer.”

Lexa moved away, allowing herself a second to look at Nia. The woman was gritting her teeth, unhappy with their conversation. Maybe a bit tense. After all, Roan was supposed to be fighting and Lexa should be too tired to win.

“Roan! Stop playing,” Nia shouted, less calm than before, with a tinge of worry in her voice that Lexa didn't miss.

He tensed a little more, tightening the grip of his sword. Lexa saw the hesitation in his eyes, the fear of making the wrong choice. The fear of losing his chance of being free of Nia’s control.

When he moved again, he was more violent, but his attacks less precis. They caused, however, that Lexa started taking it seriously. She wanted to give Roan as much time as he needed, but she couldn’t ignore the protests of her body.

Lexa counted two minutes before she hit him with such force that she sent Roan’s sword flying five meters away. The man stepped back, grabbing two knives out of his belt as he backed out.

That was the moment of truth.

Lexa maintained her posture, ready to attack depending on Roan’s next move. When he dropped the knives to the floor, she slightly raised her sword.

“I surrender,” he muttered, at first low, before adding louder. “I surrender. This fight is pointless. I’ve never doubted about Lexa’s position, she’s our commander,” he stepped toward her, positioning on her side. Only Lexa saw how his hands were shaking.

His words caused a small ovation of the public, although a good part of the hunters seemed lost, trying to figurate the last events. Nia was livid.

“Nia Queen,” Lexa called, almost shouting. She lowered her sword but didn’t drop it. Not yet. “You are accused of treason and being an accomplice of kidnapping, human experimentation, and murdered.” For a moment she saw Costia’s corpse lying in front of Nia. It was gone when she blinked. “Guards, take her to a cell.”

“You can’t make those accusations!” She beamed.

“I can," she replied, cold. "I just did.”

There was a moment of hesitation when Nia’s warriors tried to form a circle to protect her while some guards moved closer to her. However, the large number of people was a disadvantage to both sides. Nia couldn’t easily run away but attacked her wasn’t a good idea either. Lexa didn't care. No matter what, Nia was trapped by her own spectacle. Lexa waited, ready if Nia decided to jump inside the battle circle, maybe to fight her or to gain more space. What she wasn’t expecting was that the woman would take a dagger from her sleeve and throw it to Roan.

It was Lexa’s reflex that made her put herself in front of Roan, blocking the dagger with her sword. She didn’t see Nia’s second dagger until she felt a sharp pain on her shoulder and lowered her eyes. She took it off immediately, although it was probably too late. The dagger was small, thinner than her finger, not very useful to kill someone with that distance. Or Nia was desperate or it was poisoned.

 _Probably the former,_ Lexa thought, starting to feel a bit dizzy.

Luckily, in the training to become a hunter and, especially later, to be the next commander, Mithridatism was an obligatory subject. Becoming immune to some venoms had been painful, but useful. And being a natblida had some advantages. Right now, she would be okay, or she’d probably die.

✠ ✠

Wells and Bellamy, one on each side, were the reason why Clarke wasn’t already beside Lexa. Her friends were holding her arms so tight that she couldn’t release herself, no matter how much she tried to pull them away.

“Clarke,” Wells whispered, low and concerned. “You need to have a low profile.”

Of course, she ignored him. She also ignored that Titus was running toward Lexa or a man’s voice shouting: “She tried to kill the commander!” Clarke ignored them all because she only had eyes for Lexa, who seemed unbothered with the blood running down from her shoulder to her chest.

However, Clarke changed her focus to Nia when Abby appeared next to the hunter and pulled her to the empty circle of the arena. It happened so fast that a human would have difficulties to follow her movements. Nia fell onto her knees. Not even a second later, Indra and a man (probably another ambassador), had their weapons pointing to Nia’s throat.

Some of Nia’s warriors drop their weapons, aware of their defeat, but three jumped toward Abby. Clarke gasped before she remembered that her mother was a skilled warrior and one of the oldest vampires of the Ark. The woman knocked the three warriors as they came closer, not even one could lay a finger on her.

The guards entered the circle, not anymore empty, and two grabbed Nia, while the others took the unconscious hunters. One, a woman on her thirty, clearly hesitated when she stopped in front of Abby.

“Thanks, Abby,” Lexa said, ending the doubts of the hunters, who started making their way out of the arena, dragging Nia with them.

Clarke looked back at Lexa, who was now applying some pressure with her jacket on the wound. Titus had placed a hand on her upper arm in a protective position and was subtly trying to put himself between the girl and Abby.

“Your welcome, commander.” Abby, however, was calm.

As the hunters began to leave the courtyard, Clarke was pulled out, dragged by her friends away from Lexa, Abby, Marcus, Pyke, and some hunters, feeling completely useless.

 _I'll come back,_ she promised herself.

✠ ✠

It has been six hours and Lexa was alive, so she doubted she’d die tonight. At least, not because of the venom. Dealing with Titus and the ambassadors had been a nightmare. As she expected, they didn’t take well her idea of including a vampire as the new ambassador. Qint in particular seemed more upset about the change than Nia’s treason. However, the worst was Titus’ silence.

Nia was in a cell and thanks to Raven they had evidence of the texts she shared with Cage, clearly the mastermind of the vampires. Lexa should be happy, or at least satisfied, but she didn’t feel victorious. They didn’t have an antidote to the reapers, she didn’t know how to deal with the mountain vampires, and she couldn’t trust her ambassadors. Maybe she shouldn’t have made a deal with the Ark, but right now she trusted them more than her ambassadors. But it wasn’t always like this. When did everything turn so complicated? What did she do wrong?

Lexa shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. It was late and tomorrow was going to be a long day, what she needed was some rest. However, walking through the empty hallway to her room was strange without Titus by her side. He always accompanied her after every meeting, sometimes in silence, sometimes to give her advice. He was madder than she had originally thought, if not he wouldn’t break his costume. Besides, he didn’t even seem to care about the type of poison Nia had used. The healer that had treated her some hours ago suspected it was curare, but he didn’t press to make more tests.

As she entered her room, she thought about Clarke. It was impossible not to do it when her jacket was on the bed as a reminder of what happened earlier. Of Lexa’s mistake. And she was about to make another one.

Instead of ignoring the jacket and go to sleep, the hunter took a shower, changed her clothes for one free of blood, and grabbed the jacket. She let Clarke’s t-shirt on her chair, though. It was ruined, but maybe later she could try to fix it.

Lexa felt safer once she entered the tunnel and left her room behind. She didn’t even bother to turn on her lantern, she just walked through the dark path. As she advanced, she made a mental list of all the things she should do tomorrow. Convince Titus that the ark wasn’t their enemy. Talk with Roan to know why Nia was so desperate to kill him. Get more information from Emerson. Find a cure…

She didn’t have time to finish the list, she arrived at the warehouse before she could end it. As she imagined, Clarke was there. The vampire stood in front of her, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at her and clearly expecting an explanation.

“Nia is in a cell,” Lexa began, trying to keep it in business. “Raven’s proves are probably enough to…”

Lexa trailed when Clarke stepped closer, placing her hand on Lexa’s shoulder without touching her wound.

“Are you okay?” Her voice sounded almost as usual, and the worry was evident.

“Of course.” She blinked, taken back for her concern. “It wasn’t deep.” However, she didn’t add the poison the part, nor the headache, dizziness, or nausea. 

They settled in silence, Clarke staring and not moving her hand as if she feared Lexa would suddenly disappear. Lexa too overwhelmed for Clarke’s concern.

“I have your jacket,” Lexa muttered, uncomfortable, lifting her arm.

Clarke looked at her with a mix of confusion and hurt. “That’s why you are here? To talk about Nia and return my jacket?”

Deep down, Lexa knew the answer was no, that were only excuses. However, she couldn’t bring herself to say the truth. As much as she wanted to be close to Clarke, she needed to put some distance between them. She backed out, moving away from the vampire, who interpreted her silence in the worse way.

“Seriously? You are just…” She sighed, more frustrated than mad. “Why did you kiss me?”

Lexa closed her eyes. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They never talked about their kisses; they just pretend it never happened. At least, is what they did with the first two. Now, with the third, Clarke had just dropped the policy of not talking.

“We don’t have to do this,” she muttered, opening her eyes but avoiding her gaze.

“Just want to know why.”

“Clarke…” She warned.

However, Clarke ignored all warnings and common sense. She stepped toward Lexa, who stepped back. With their roles reversed, Lexa’s back hit the closet connected with the tunnel. Her way out was at her fingertips, it would be as easy as turning and opening the door. However, she remained standing.

Clarke continued moving closer, intentionally slowly to give Lexa the chance of pulling her away or say no. It was what she should do, but she was frozen in her place. She didn’t move when Clarke placed one hand on her hip and the other on the back of her neck, tugging Lexa closer.

She didn’t move either when Clarke kissed her.

It was tentative at first, Clarke’s way of asking her permission. The kiss escalated as Lexa didn’t push her away. For the briefest moment, Lexa went against all logic and kissed her back, sliding her hand under Clarke’s jacket and... No. She shouldn’t do it.

No.

_NO._

Lexa pushed her away and Clarke, that had been ready since the beginning, reacted stepping back. Lexa hated her for appreciating the gesture. She hated herself for not hating Clarke.

“Say you don’t want this,” Clarke muttered, her voice huskier and not only because of the wound.

If Lexa hated her, she could lie. But she didn’t want to hurt her, even if playing this game would eventually hurt her. Maybe even kill her.

The image of Costia’s dead head came to her mind as vivid as if it hasn’t passed weeks since that moment.

“No,” she whispered, shutting her eyes, trying to forget the image. She could feel the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and she was too dam tired to fight them back.

“Lexa…” Clarke’s voice sounded worried and close to her.

Lexa pulled abruptly her arm when she felt Clarke’s cold hand. She was shaking and, like everything, she couldn’t control it. She could only push Clarke away.

“It was a mistake,” she muttered, heavily breathing. If she weren’t leaned into the door, she would probably fall. “Go away…” Her voice didn’t come as strong as she wished.

“Lexa, please, look at me.”

It was the panic in Clarke’s voice that made her open her eyes. However, she couldn’t see clearly. Her vision was blurry and, when she blinked, she realized it was for the tears. The knowledge that she was crying ultimately broke her.

“They killed Costia to hurt me. She’s dead because of me.” The words spilled out of her mouth without control. “They killed her because she was my best friend.”

“That’s not…”

“Yes, it is!” She interrupted her. “I… I can’t be with anybody… I can’t lose you… I… I…”

Lexa didn’t pull her away when the vampire wrapped her arms around her waist, mostly because it avoided her to fall. Her chest hurt as if she had been shot. Breathing had never been so difficult.

Unable to remain stood, Lexa leaned into Clarke, allowing the vampire to hold her closer while she cried.


	13. Breaking point

Clarke had seen Lexa killing Gustus, a man she trusted and care for. She had also seen her removing her father from his ambassador’s position although he hated her for that. Clarke was also there when Lexa forgave Thelonious’s life.

However, Clarke had never seen Lexa so broken.

The vampire held her closer, wishing she had the power to erase Lexa’s pain. But she didn’t have that kind of power, so she just stood there for the next minutes, hugging her.

When Lexa calmed down, she placed her hands on Clarke’s shoulders and pulled herself away, but the vampire refused to completely let her go, so she stepped back letting her hands on Lexa’s waist.

“I’m sorry,” Lexa mumbled, wiping the tears with her sleeve. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“But you came. And it’s okay if you are not fine.”

“No, it’s not. I can’t…”

“You can’t be sad? Devastated?” She lifted her hand to caress Lexa’s cheek. It was still wet for the tears. “You are human, Lexa.”

“I’m the commander, I can’t be weak,” she muttered. It sounded like something she had learned but didn’t really mean.

Clarke took a step forward, afraid that, if Lexa left like that, she wouldn’t come back. Even if she didn’t plan it, Lexa had opened up and Clarke couldn’t waste the opportunity. 

“You are also Lexa,” she remained her, softly. Her throat was aching, protesting for talking so much. She ignored it, though, just like she was ignoring the impulse of bitting Lexa’s wrist, or shoulder, or neck, or… “I… Fuck,” she groaned, focussing back on what mattered. “I can’t imagine how you feel. I don’t know what I should do If I lose Wells,” she admitted, whispering. “But I wouldn’t want to be alone.”

Maybe they weren’t the right words, because Lexa shook her head and Clarke was forced to move her hand away. Or maybe Lexa was just in denial.

“Lexa, please, listen,” she pleaded, frantic. She didn’t know what to say, how to stop Lexa from putting up her walls back. “You can’t pull everyone away from you. I won’t let you.”

Lexa opened her mouth but closed it without making any sound. She looked as if she was about to cry again. “Why?” She finally asked, lower than a whisper.

“Because I don’t want to live without you!” She groaned, aware that her throat was hurting more and more. “Don’t go,” she managed to add.

She raised her hand again to caresses the hunter’s cheek. This time, Lexa leaned into the touch and closed her eyes. Clarke wanted to hug her, but she was unsure of Lexa’s reaction. Besides, she needed to do something before Lexa changed her mind.

Clarke did a long but superficial cut on her hand with her thumb’s nail. Then, she rested her forehead against Lexa, which made her open her eyes. So green and so sad. Clarke offered her hand, hoping she could understand her intentions without words.

The hesitation in Lexa’s eyes was more obvious than her slight nod. Clarke didn’t doubt. Making the smallest cut on her cheek, Clarke placed her hand on Lexa’s cheek. Then, they disappeared.

✠ ✠

Clarke was way aware of the explanations she owed her friends, but she didn’t give them a single one. She materialized in her room, hugging Lexa, who had taken the travel as bad as always. Clarke kicked the door shut with her heel as an indirect to her friends, hopefully, they wouldn’t disturb them.

Without turning the lights on, she led Lexa to the bed and helped her to remove her boots. Lexa just… let her. All her energy was gone. In some way, Clarke preferred when she was crying, at least then she seemed to feel something. Now, she seemed empty.

Her only consolation was that Lexa wasn’t alone, she had decided to go with her. That should mean something. Clarke needed to believe it was a good sign.

The vampire couldn’t stop herself from sighing. She had imagined that one day she would bring Lexa to the bunker, but this wasn’t the scenario she had in mind. Instead of teasing or giving her the most ridiculous clothes she had, Clarke did nothing. She just climbed into the bed and, gently, pushed Lexa to lay down. Clarke laid down too, involving the hunter in her arms.

They remained in silence for the next minutes. Lexa relaxed slowly, cuddling into her. She wasn’t sure of the exact moment, but at some point, the hunter fell asleep. Clarke didn’t.

Although she had her eyes closed, Clarke was very awake. Her throat kept protesting, asking her some blood to continue with the healing, but she feared leaving Lexa alone and she didn’t want to ask her friends to come. She had the feeling that, with the slightest noise, the hunter would wake up and ran away.

So, instead of standing up, Clarke tightened her wrap on her friend, thinking about everything she had said. As an expert at feeling guilty for things that escaped her control, Clarke didn’t know what could change Lexa’s wrong guiltiness about Costia’s death. _Damn Nia_ , she cursed to herself.

There was also the preoccupying fact that Lexa seemed determined to pull everyone away, which could explain why she didn’t want Anya back. That could only end badly for Lexa. No matter how skilled she was or how much experience she had, she couldn’t do everything on her own.

 _But then, it doesn’t make sense that she kissed me,_ she thought, confused. She didn’t have the answer to the kiss, only more questions.

Her thoughts were interrupted when, some hours later, the door was opened. Clarke turned to the figure that entered her room with one arm still wrapped around Lexa.

“Night, Clarke,” Abby whispered, closing the door so silently that Lexa didn’t react. The woman took some steps toward the bed, offering Clarke a cup of blood.

Clarke accepted it in silence, relieved when she felt the blood running down her throat. It erased part of the pain, but not the anxiety caused by her mother’s presence.

“How old is she?” Abby asked, so quieter and without context that Clarke didn’t know at first what she was referring for.

“Lexa?” She whispered too. Unconsciously, she pulled Lexa a bit closer. “Twenty-one. Why?”

Even in the dark, she could see Abby furrowing her brow. “And she had been the commander for the last five years. So… she started with sixteen?”

At that time, Clarke was nineteen and had just been turned into a vampire after spending all her teenage years thinking she was ready. Now, five years later, she could understand Abby’s disgust. Lexa had been way too young.

Arriving at the same conclusion, Abby shook her head. “A kid should never have such responsibility.”

Clarke couldn’t do anything but agree. When she was fifteen, she wanted more action and thought her parents were overprotective for not letting her do whatever she wanted. Now, she was grateful they put some limits. 

They stood in silence for some minutes, Clarke getting more nervous as every minute passed. Abby had a weird expression, one that Clarke couldn’t quite figurate out. “What do you want?” She finally asked, giving up.

Her mother didn’t reply immediately. She narrowed her eyes, still unusually quiet. “Just give you some advice”, she whispered. “Don’t fall more for her.”

Clarke shivered for the implication of Abby’s comment. “What?” She managed to mumble.

“She’ll end hurting you some way or another.” There wasn’t any doubt in her tone, it sounded as if she was stating a fact, not giving her opinion. “She’s not like Lincoln, she’d put her people before her feelings for you.” She sighed. “If she doesn’t destroy herself first.”

“She wouldn’t…” Clarke trailed, aware that she was talking too loudly. However, next to her, Lexa continued sleeping.

“She wouldn’t use her body as a shield to protect a partner? Give more blood she should to heal a vampire? I don’t know if they told you, but Lexa acted as bait to catch the attention of the mountain vampires to save you. All of this in less than twenty-four hours.”

Clarke lowered her face, unable to hold Abby’s gaze anymore. She knew all of this, but it wasn’t the same thinking about it than hearing out loud. And her mother didn’t even know everything.

“What do you want me to do? Abandon her?”

“No. There’s no way you’d do it, anyway. No, just…” She sighed again, tired. “Be careful where you place your heart.”

Abby leaned down and grabbed the glass, now empty, and placed a kiss on Clarke’s temple. She walked away but, when she was on the door, she turned one more time.

“I’ll do my best to protect her and I’m sure you’ll do the same. But we can’t save her from herself.”

And then, she left as silently as she had entered. However, her words stayed, echoing in Clarke’s head.

✠ ✠

The first thing Lexa noticed when she woke up was Clarke’s presence. It couldn’t be any other way since Lexa’s head rested on her chest, their legs were tangled and Clarke’s arms were wrapped around her waist. If it weren’t enough, Lexa felt mortified when she realized she was hugging Clarke too.

The worst part was how comfortable she felt.

Lexa pulled herself away so abruptly and without considering the size of the bed or the darkness of what she expected to be Clarke’s room, that she almost fell out of the bed. Of course, Clarke was faster and grabbed Lexa’s wrist, tugging the hunter toward her, but both lost their balance. And that was how Lexa ended laying on top of Clarke. What a perfect way to start the day.

She was surrounded by absolute darkness, but Lexa was sure her face was too close to Clarke’s. Call it intuition or having bumped their noses by mistake. She was also pretty sure that, if she leaned down a little, she’d kiss her. Lexa scowled herself, but she couldn’t erase the thought.

“Good morning,” Clarke greeted her. Although Lexa couldn’t see her face, she knew the vampire was smiling. “How does it feel finally falling for me?”

“Good morning,” she answered, awkwardly polite. However, she didn’t reply to her teasing.

Before Lexa could move away again, Clarke sat up, wrapping one arm protective around Lexa’s waist, pulling her closer. Worried about losing her balance, Lexa placed her hand on Clarke’s shoulder.

Lexa blamed the darkness of not realizing faster she had ended sitting on Clarke’s lap.

“Clarke…” Her voice sounded more like a plead than a warning.

The vampire pulled her even closer, her nose brushing Lexa’s neck. “How do you feel?” She asked, softly.

“Fine,” she admitted, completely honest. She didn’t know what time it was, but it was probably past seven. And it had been weeks since she had slept so much. For once, she didn’t have any headaches. Although she didn’t have any reason to not push Clarke away, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I’m sorry for last night,” she muttered after a while.

She felt more than see Clarke shaking her head. “You don’t have to apologize.” She tightened her grip and Lexa found herself wrapping her arms around Clarke’s neck and resting her chin on the top of the vampire’s head. “Do you want to talk?”

Lexa closed her eyes although it didn’t change anything. She knew what Clarke wanted and a part of her wanted too. Maybe putting her feelings into words could help to untangle them, but she didn’t know how to do it.

“What time is it?” She asked, instead.

“Last time I checked, it was half-past seven.” Clarke’s replied arrived some seconds later with obvious disappointment.

“Thanks. I… I should go.”

Although the hesitation in her voice was evident, Clarke didn’t push her. Instead, she released her arms. When she started to move away, Lexa managed to capture her hand. “Wait,” she whispered.

In the darkness, where she couldn’t see anything, it seemed easier being honest. “Thanks for bringing me here last night. I needed y- it,” she corrected, almost saying ‘I needed you’.

If Clarke caught her mistake, she didn’t show it. “Anytime, Lexa,” she whispered, more softly than Lexa deserved. “I’m here for you.”

“You shouldn’t,” she muttered. Her intention wasn’t saying it out loud, but the words spilled from her lips before she could stop them.

“Lexa…” Clarke sighed, squeezing Lexa’s hand. The hunter felt the mattress sank beside her. “If Anya arrives at Polis and gets attacked, would you go to help her?”

“Perhaps? I mean, it depends if she can deal on her own, or not.”

“Let’s imagine she needs helps. And imagine that you end hurt when you go to help her.”

Lexa didn’t need to read her mind to know Clarke’s point. “It’s not the same.”

“Why not? It isn’t Anya’s fault just like it’s not your fault if someone hurts me fighting by your side.”

“It’s not the same,” she repeated, louder.

“Really?” Although the vampire was trying to sound calm, there was a tinge of annoyance in her voice. “If Nia killed Wells to make me suffer, would you blame me?”

“Of course not!”

“Then, why do you blame yourself?”

Lexa was decided to not talk about it, but there she was, unable to shut up. “Because Titus warned me this could happen,” she muttered, lowering her voice. “He told me to put some distance. I could learn to trust my people, but I should never love them. Love is weakness. So no, it’s not the same. I knew this could happen.”

She felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes, but she blinked them back. Even if she couldn’t see anything, Clarke did. And she had already cried too much in front of the vampire.

“What the…?” Clarke trailed, too angry to articulate. “Okay, first of all, fuck Titus. Secondly, now that I know what happened with Costia, if in two years someone kills Wells, would it be my fault? I know it was a possibility because of you. Would you blame me?”

“No,” she replied without doubting.

Clarke released her hand to cup her cheeks. Unconsciously, Lexa leaned down her head, pressing her forehead against Clarke’s.

“I don’t blame you either. And if you need it, I’ll repeat it every day until you believe me.”

Lexa closed her eyes, fighting in vain against her tears. She didn’t expect to hear those words, she wasn’t even sure if she deserved them or if they were true. But, deep down, a part of her wanted to believe Clarke.

Embarrassed for crying again and unable to stop, Lexa hid her face on Clarke’s neck. She felt the vampire’s hand stroking her back. 

“My friends, mum… Everybody but Raven understood why I had to kill Finn," Clarke said suddenly, breaking the silence that had settled for the last minutes. “She hated me for a while and she avoided me for months, but she eventually understood it too and she forgave me. She forgave me before I could forgive myself. I struggled for too long, but I don’t blame me anymore.”

It had been years since the last time Lexa heard Finn’s name, but she hadn’t forgotten him, just like she could never forget Gustus. Their deaths were part of their recent history, reminders of what they had lost before the peace. They shouldn’t be forgotten.

Lexa took a deep breath. Her tears had dried up and she wasn’t sobbing anymore. However, the biggest change was the small weight that had been lifted from her chest. She felt lighter somehow.

“Thanks,” she muttered, moving her face away from the crook of Clarke’s neck.

“Anytime.”

After one last squeeze, Clarke released her, getting up. Some seconds later, the lights of the room were turned on. Lexa blinked, dazzled because of the contrast. When she got used to the change, she found Clarke standing in the middle of the room with a fond smile on her face. She held her hand out to Lexa to help her up. With some hesitation, she accepted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know why I enjoyed so much writing this chapter, but it’s one of my favourites.
> 
> Anyway, I have some bad news :( I’m starting my exams soon, so I’m going to make a pause for the next weeks. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, probably after xmas.


End file.
